Innateness is (still) an orienting principle for language development

The origins of language have been a persistent object of philosophical and scientific inquiry, in part because they offer a window into the origins of thought. Classic innatist theories of language have argued that languages share universal elements that arise because language acquisition is guided by rich, biologically specified structures in the form of a universal grammar. However, different versions of this hypothesis that posit substantial amounts of innate content are not consistent with recent evidence. We review new evidence from language diversity, human interaction, and large language models (LLMs), all of which challenge classical innatist views. Yet we believe there is still value in asking what elements of language development are innate. In this Perspective, we integrate evidence from these three areas towards a broader conception of innateness, one that seeks to explain both consistency and variation in language acquisition. On this view, innateness remains a key orienting principle for understanding the origins of language.