On the acquisition and the creative aspect of language: Noam Chomsky's answers to Plato’s and Descartes’s problems

Abstract

This study intends to do a reading of what Noam Chomsky called the Plato’s Problem and the Descartes’s Problem. The first seeks to answer the question about how it is possible for adult human beings to possess such a complex and rich knowledge of the language system, since their contact with the world can be considered limited and the initial stimulus they receive during language acquisition are so poor; and the second is related to the creative aspect of language, which allows the elaboration of an infinite number of sentences from a finite number of elements and structures.