What are we born with? Innateness: language and childlore

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to contribute to our understanding of what the child is born with, and how this relates to language, practice and arts (including, in particular, folklore and, to a lesser extent, literature). My hypothesis is that innateness is manifested not only in our conceptual and linguistic world and in the realm of knowledge acquisition, but also in the collective conscious and the preformed (predetermined), inherited structures that are constant sources of inspiration for folklore and literature. Childlore ought to have a privileged place in the study of innateness. The finest children’s literature builds on the fundamental structures and characteristics of childlore. This notion, which is rooted in C. S. Peirce’s theory of abduction, as revived and further developed by Chomsky, has already been discussed in some of my former papers on abduction. I have also tried to show that the works of Freud, Jung and Chomsky, are related in terms of the history of science. However, my arguments on innateness and its presence in childlore, are merely hypothetical. The method used in this paper basically derives from anthropological linguistics, but incorporate certain psychological and semiotic considerations.