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language acquisition device

LANG-gwij ah-KWIZ-ih-shun deh-VYS

ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ əˌkwɪzɪʃən dɪˈvaɪs

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Syllable breakdown

languageacquisitiondevice

Dictionary meaning

Noam Chomsky's hypothesized innate mental faculty that enables all children to rapidly acquire language; proposed to explain why children master complex grammar rules effortlessly and universally despite limited and imperfect linguistic input — the poverty of the stimulus problem

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