Is language ablility related to intelligence?

Answer 1

This question has been haunting linguists, psychologists and neuroscientists for decades now. The famous linguist Noam Chomsky first put forward that language is an innate capacity of the human brain, and that it is an autonomous faculty - meaning that it is a system of its own, rather than one of the manifestations of intelligence. Chomsky reckoned language to be something 'special' and uniquely human: no species has an equivalent of language. Certainly, they have systems of communication, but they all lack a several important features, such as recursion (sentences within sentences), creativity and dissociation between the signifier (communication element, a word or sign) and the signified. As an example of the last aspect: there is no relationship between the word 'tree' (or, in other human languages: boom, arbre, etc...) has no relationship whatsoever to the tangible real-world tree. Chomsky's ideas caused quite some controversy in the field of linguistics: some said that the fact that language does not exist in animals was due to the fact that they are simply not as smart as humans. Still, some experts think that language is no specialized capacity. Conversely, Fodor continued the line of Chomsky's thought, stating that language is a 'module' in the brain that does not interact with other parts of it. He supports this claim with extensive evidence: for example, there is a big difference in the reaction of people to acoustic signals that are supposed to be an utterance, and acoustic signals that are non-linguistic. This means that language is processed in a different way - by different, specialized parts, suggests Fodor - than other input. Another strong piece of evidence for the view that language is not a projection of intelligence, is provided by individuals with Specific Language Impairment on the one hand, and people suffering from Williams Syndrome on the other hand. In the first case, patients have a normal intelligence, but they perform far below average on language tasks. Williams syndrome is a genetic disorder in which the patient has a very low IQ, but a normal or near-normal language performance. This 'double dissociation' may indicate that language is indeed not so closely related to intelligence. It remains difficult to formulate relationships between language ability and intelligence accurately. A problem that rises when one tries to compare the two, is that widely used IQ tests (such as the WISC and the WAIS) necessarily include verbal tests. Personally, I do believe that intelligence both consitutes a threshold for language: no cases of individuals with a mental age below 5, the age at which children have acquired a great deal of the grammar of their native language, being able to master grammatic rules, are known. Also, I believe that language does rely on other broader cognitive systems such as memory. Therefore, language and intelligence can never be considered to be completely separate.