Elements of Grammar Innate to All Humans

Researchers have long wondered why certain fundamental characteristics of grammar are present in all languages. A team of University scientists found evidence that these properties are built into the way our brains work.

After studying deaf individuals who have been isolated from conventional sign, spoken, and written languages their entire lives, Elissa Newport, the George Eastman Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Linguistics, found that the “home signers” developed a unique form of gesture communication that paralleled the characteristics of human language.

“They designed their own language and wound up with some of the same rules of grammar every other language uses,” Newport says. Newport is continuing her research into human language, including how language input affects its innate properties.