Synonyms
Definition
The notion that human cognitive architecture includes a module for language, i.e., an innate system of neural tissue that responds only to speech.
Introduction
The concept of a modularized mind, constructed of distinct units devoted to particular psychological functions, can be traced back at least to Gall, the father of the nineteenth-century phrenology. In the twentieth century, a version of modularity (termed “the new organology” by detractors) was advocated by Chomsky, who speculated that some sort of language module would be necessary to support his universal grammar (e.g., Chomsky 1980). Today modularity is most closely identified with Jerry Fodor, whose publication in 1983 of The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology (Fodor 1983) electrified the still-young field of cognitive psychology. Fodor’s modularity, which depicts modules as hardwired information processing systems, appealed to a generation of...
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References
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Harris, L.N., Lech, I. (2016). Language Modularity. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3333-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3333-1
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