Methodological Tenets, Plausibility and Reality in Chomskyan Biolinguistics

This paper assesses the impact that the methodological tenets of Chomskyan biolinguistics have had on the theory’s neurological plausibility and relation to reality. An overview of those methodological principles is followed by a recapitulation of the two main commitments that the theory adopted –as stated by Lakoff (1991) and Author (unpublished)– and of the different aspects that render the biolinguistic perspective neurologically implausible. Finally, the methodological tenets of biolinguistics will be critically analyzed and adduced to constitute the ultimate cause of the theory’s detachment from reality.