# How children learn language

- kind: problem
- status: open
- year: 1959

**Statement.** How do children learn language from limited input, and how much of the ability is innate?

Chomsky argued from the 'poverty of the stimulus' for an innate universal grammar. Large language models learn grammar from text alone, though they need far more data than any child hears. That reopened the debate without settling it.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Language acquisition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition)

[Language](/wiki/Space:language.md) · [Mind](/wiki/Continent:mind.md)

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