WiSe 2025/26

Are we born with some knowledge about language? Do we have a basic instinct for language? This master’s seminar based on the Textbook with the same name, will focus on understanding the different arguments on this debate; that is to say between nature (‘innateness’ = genes) and nurture (knowledge /culture).

In order to understand the debate and have a well-formed opinion, students will learn about the scientist involved, the context and the main findings. However, it is a never-ending debate, but… why? Hopefully, we’ll discover the reason during this seminar.

All the information about the course, including prerequisites, remarks and bibliography available in LSF: