1-year old babies already understand a significant amount of language and can produce a word or two. Would it make any amount of sense to say that babies are born already knowing their native language?I wonder if he's heard about this study that shows how preference for one's own race is a trait already expressed by 1-year-old babies
So you're suggesting that 1-year-old babies have already internalised adult notions of racism (that they couldn't have learnt from their parents unless they were openly racist) ... riiight. Come on, don't you realise how silly that sounds? No, because their native language has been invented by other humans in historical times. It would be like expecting a baby to be born knowing a programming language. Racism on the other hand is a basic instinct that dates back to hundreds of thousands of years ago at the very least and probably conferred our ancestors some kind of evolutionary advantage, so it's in our DNA.Would it make any amount of sense to say that babies are born already knowing their native language?
I'm not saying that they've internalized adult-like notions of race. However, it's absurd to claim that race preferences are innate if your evidence is from 1-year olds. Most people are surrounded by their family when they're young, and chances are their family is the same race as them. If you're then presented with someone of a different race, they're visually novel to you and then preference might emerge that way (in a, "hey that person doesn't look like the people I'm used to" kind of way). That's one possible explanation, and there are literally thousands of other explanations. The point is that you have no way of knowing if race preferences are innate when you look at babies who already have plenty of world experience. If you want to claim that race preferences are innate, you would need to look for them extremely close to birth. Ideally at the moment of birth, but same day would be fine. People do studies on babies the same day they're born so it's not impossible. The point is, you're not making a valid inference from the data.
According to Doctor Who, yes, babies upon birth already have a native language and they can communicate quite well with it, once they get past the shock of being thrust into a chaotic existence. Doctor Who knows this because he speaks Baby. Which befuddles the humans who see him having conversations with infants.