---
title: "Language Theory Notes for 09.18.06"
date: 2006-09-18
url: https://learningischange.com/2006/09/18/language-theory-notes-for-091806/
author: Ben Wilkoff
categories: ["Uncategorized"]
tags: ["professional development"]
---

# Language Theory Notes for 09.18.06

- [Interesting Animal Grammar Article](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060428151356.htm)
- Animals do not have the capacity for generative grammar. They are committed to the behavioral form of learning language.
- Another article described the genetic link of stuttering.
- [Metaphor as thought](http://weblogg-ed.com/2005/blogs-in-education-30/#comment-1406). (My contribution)
- A grammar is the derivation of understanding (not meaning, not sense) from syntactical and contextual elements.
- The process of continuous instinctual categorization of words and contextual evidence is responsible for understanding sentences.

- A discreet combinatorial system is the ability to take a finite amount of rules and come up with an infinite amount of combinations.
- The meaning derived is greater than the sum of its parts.

- The universal grammar is present in every human, but it must be activated.
- Language = mental dictionary + universal grammar.