It's been about 50 years since Noam Chomsky conclusively established that the basic structures of human language are pre-wired in our brains, not gleaned from experience. Or… maybe he didn't. While several generations of theoretical linguists have been diligently expanding the Chomskian program, another faction says there's little or no evidence for his "universal grammar" and it's time to scale back or even scrap the theory. Former innatist Daniel Everett is in now part of the opposition. On last week's show, I aired a 2007 interview with Dan talking about his adventures as a missionary turned Amazonian linguist, and how he lost faith first in Christianity and then in Chomskianism. This time, a new interview with Dan discussing his latest book, "Language: The Cultural Tool." In it, he advances the idea that grammars and other aspects of particular languages are shaped by culture.
