Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!hudson.lm.com!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!uknet!festival!edcogsci!jeff
From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Subject: Re: What's innate? (Was Re: Artificial Neural Networks and Cognition
Message-ID: <D2z79n.5yF@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: usenet@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (C News Software)
Nntp-Posting-Host: bute.aiai.ed.ac.uk
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
References: <3g169u$s8o@mp.cs.niu.edu> <D2xozo.CKH@spss.com> <3g4br6$dga@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 19:24:58 GMT
Lines: 28

In article <3g4br6$dga@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
>In <D2xozo.CKH@spss.com> markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder) writes:
>>In article <3g169u$s8o@mp.cs.niu.edu>, Neil Rickert <rickert@cs.niu.edu> wrote:
>
>>>                  But if the language specific neural tissue is a
>>>near copy of other neural tissue, then language learning must uses
>>>processes similar to those used for learning in other domains.  That
>>>is, language acquisition must be part of a general learning facility.
>
>>The last sentence doesn't follow.  We don't know that there *is* a "general
>>learning facility"; there might be a number of specialized learning 
>>systems.  And it could be that a language facility developed out of
>>some existing *specialized* subsystem (one dealing with primate calls,
>>for instance).
>
>I will accept that as a friendly correction.  But unless some other
>subsystem can be found with suitable abilities that seem similar to
>those for learning syntax, the same difficulties would exist.
>Personally, I would support the idea that the language facility grew
>out of a system dealing with primate calls.  But that would not seem
>to help Chomsky, since he argues that primates do not have UG.

Why does it not help Chomsky?  If the question is whether UG
could have evolved, then the existence of something it could have
grown out of seems relevant.  The system for dealing with primate
calls wouldn't have to be UG, and so this is consistent w/ 
(non-human) primates not having UG.

