Language Innateness - Jan-Wouter Zwart vs. Dan Everett

To celebrate the launch of their programme in multilingualism the University of Groningen and the University Campus Fryslân organised a seminal event entitled: Multilingualism: The Key Debates on 12 and 13 September 2013.

One of the most exciting parts of this event were the debates held between eight internationally acclaimed experts about pivotal issues concerning language and multilingualism.

The event was sponsored by the Province of Fryslân, the Royal Dutch Academy for Science and Språkåret 2013.

Is language an innate property of humans, or something acquired? Addressing the question of whether humans are born with a special language faculty, or whether language is something that is learnt through socialisation, has been the core endeavour of linguistic research in modern times. The debate is still going strong today. It is one of the fundamental questions that research into multilingualism must also address.

Dan Everett from Bentley University and Jan-Wouter Zwart from the University of Groningen were asked to consider whether they believe language is innate to humans in a discussion during the event Multilingual Fryslân: The Key Debates on 12 and 13 September 2013 in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. The moderator of the debate was Professor Frans Zwarts of the Univeristy Campus Fryslân.