Linguistic Origins: Culture vs Nature (?)

Thesis:

The debate over linguistic origin has been ongoing throughout the era. Dr. Pinker and Mr. Dalrymple have both made compelling arguments for biology and culture respectively. In spite of this, my verdict stands: human linguistic development originates from a fine blend of biological and cultural influences. No matter how well Pinker and Dalrymple’s arguments are, they do not stand strong enough to justify that language originates from just nature or culture alone.

Quotes:

1. Dr. Pinker talks about the rules of language being somewhat hardwired into children, and how if they are brought up in a language that does not have those grammatical rules, they will create them. Honestly, I cannot fine his exact quote right now, but I will….
I will be using this quote as evidence, credibility, and a counterexample.

2. “It is utterly implausible to suggest that imitation of parents (or other social contacts) has nothing whatever to do with the acquisition of language. I hesitate to mention so obvious a consideration, but Chinese parents tend to have Chinese-speaking children, and Portuguese parents Portuguese-speaking ones. I find it difficult to believe that this is entirely a coincidence and that imitation has nothing to do with it. Moreover, it is a sociological truism that children tend to speak not merely the language but the dialect of their parents.”
I’ll be using this quote as well for evidence, credibility, and counterexample

3. “But everyone ought to have the opportunity to transcend the limitations of his linguistic environment, if it is a restricted one—which means that he ought to meet a few schoolmarms in his childhood. Everyone, save the handicapped, learns to run without being taught; but no child runs 100 yards in nine seconds, or even 15 seconds, without training. It is fatuous to expect that the most complex of human faculties, language, requires no special training to develop it to its highest possible power.”
Again, used for credibility, evidence, and counterexample


Further thoughts:

The quotes in general I plan to use to “describe” the views of natural and cultural linguistic origin, so that I may take ideas from each and show how they can cooperate.

I feel that once I have established a fairly strong background of Pinker, Dalrymple, and their views, I can then show how their ideas in fact can sync quite nicely, into a very thoughtful theory of language.