"no conscious understanding of the rules is required"
I hate to nitpick, but this is not entirely true.
First, there is no innate, specific grammar or syntax in the human brain. Any given language -- even one's first language -- is learned. It's learned in stages, and true, one tends to pick up the rules by immersion before studying them consciously. But conscious study of the rules is extremely beneficial to improving one's understanding of, and facility with, a given language.
To say that "no conscious understanding of the rules is required" is a little like saying "Kobe Bryant is a naturally born basketball genius." True, Kobe Bryant may have certain athletic gifts and mental wiring that enable him to exceed 99.999999% of the world at basketball skill. But he learned the rules of the game, just like everyone else. And he practices daily. In fact, he probably practices harder than many of his less talented peers. Even someone of his natural endowments couldn't have risen to his level without conscious and repeated effort.
It's true that grammar and syntax start to seem natural and subconscious over time, especially as one improves in linguistic fluency. That's a good sign, in fact. But I've never met a writer who couldn't benefit from conscious study of the rules and fundamentals, even if only occasionally.
> First, there is no innate, specific grammar or syntax in the human brain.
While I don't agree with theory, Chomskyian grammar actually does assert this. It has a certain intuitive strength behind it, too.
> To say that "no conscious understanding of the rules is required" is a little like saying "Kobe Bryant is a naturally born basketball genius."
Except that's different. "No conscious understanding" doesn't mean "no learning". Most English speakers easily use irregular pluralization without significant hiccups, but it's really just following I-mutation: http://www.etymonline.com/imutate.php I'll bet 99% of English speakers hadn't even heard the term or the concept.
I think we're talking about, and possibly conflating, two different things here: speech and writing. I was explicitly talking about written language, in as much as that was the domain of the linked article (and the grandparent comment, or at least I thought as much).
Frankly, I'm largely responsible for this conflation. I didn't draw clear enough distinctions, and in fact, I probably lost sight of the distinctions myself in responding. That's 100% on me.
Nevertheless, the fact remains, a statement like "no conscious understanding of the rules is required" is overly broad and sweeping. It lends itself to about a thousand interpretations, mine being merely one of them. There are too many contexts for the expression of language, and methods of communication by which to express it (written, verbal, etc.), to make a categorical statement like that.
> I think we're talking about, and possibly conflating, two different things here: speech and writing.
Could you speak to the relevance of the distinction?
> It lends itself to about a thousand interpretations, mine being merely one of them.
Could you offer some of them? I simply saw "an understanding of the rules, that is conscious, is not required". That seems like a simple enough, unambiguous statement.
I would also add that most modern linguists tend to view only instantaneous language production (i.e. casual speech and sign language) as representative of natural grammar. Once you incorporate conscious processes into it (as in writing), you interfere with the way people produce their language. With this in mind, most of what is taught in school or learned through practice does little to affect our speech patterns; nearly all of them are acquired from our family and social group at an early age. Not my exact field, but I believe there is a bevy of research to say that adults change syntactic structures of their speech only once in a blue moon. So in this sense, there is almost 0 explicit learning in the process. Kobe Bryant had his shooting skills straight from the womb.
Once you learn to read, you don't have any consciousness of reading, but this does not mean there is a reading acquisition module. Or a driving one, etc.
Have you ever watched a child learn language? They're not conscious of grammar at all. It's basically impossible to correct them, the just ignore you and keep on saying the wrong thing. Eventually they figure out the right thing themselves.
Have you watched an adult learn a pidgin through immersion? It has a similar character, because there is no French academy, Latin teacher, or privileged register of English involved, and there is no methodology.
I wonder where we got the idea that the only way people learn languages after their first is through school.
"I agree with everything after your unsupported first sentence."
What about my first sentence bugs you? The brain is certainly wired for language, but not for a specific language. English, for example, is not instinctive. A newborn baby will not spontaneously develop English; he will need to pick it up by being around others who are speaking it. Same goes for French, or Mandarin, or Russian, etc. I'm not going to spend all morning looking up and linking research papers on this topic, so I'll just need you to take a flyer on this. Either you're going to agree with me or disagree with me, and that's cool either way.
"I think we have differing interpretations of "required"
Perhaps, though it's probably not a semantic rabbit hole worth a deep dive. But sure, learning the rules of a language isn't technically "required" in order to attain basic fluency with the language. But conscious study of the rules is certainly required to break through plateaus in one's facility. I guess this ultimately boils down to what one's desired goals and outcome with a language are.
Either way, the statement "no conscious understanding of the rules is required" is overly reductive and sweeping.
The problem with your assertion is that it is inappropriate as a response to a concise description of what linguistics is. Linguistics is not the study of how to be a more effective writer or a great communicator. Linguistics is the study of the "basic" language communication skills that nearly everyone possesses. When you study linguistics, you discover that even what many people would consider to be poor speech or writing is still remarkably sophisticated and complex.
> The brain is certainly wired for language, but not for a specific language.
Can you explain how the brain is "wired for language?" Naively, I would imagine language is just one instance of the general pattern "things Hierarchical Temporal Memory models (e.g. the neocortex) get for free given a large-enough training corpus." Is that what you meant, or is there actually some part of our brains that is specifically "language" and couldn't be repurposed for something else?
It's not that the parts responsible for language couldn't be repurposed for something else (although I don't know whether it's true). It's the fact, that more general learning skills cannot substitute dedicated language learning capabilities.
It's hard to come up with different hypothesis once you know that children not exposed to language at all for some time (up to 4-6 years, but I don't remember) lose the ability to acquire it forever.
I hate to nitpick, but this is not entirely true.
First, there is no innate, specific grammar or syntax in the human brain. Any given language -- even one's first language -- is learned. It's learned in stages, and true, one tends to pick up the rules by immersion before studying them consciously. But conscious study of the rules is extremely beneficial to improving one's understanding of, and facility with, a given language.
To say that "no conscious understanding of the rules is required" is a little like saying "Kobe Bryant is a naturally born basketball genius." True, Kobe Bryant may have certain athletic gifts and mental wiring that enable him to exceed 99.999999% of the world at basketball skill. But he learned the rules of the game, just like everyone else. And he practices daily. In fact, he probably practices harder than many of his less talented peers. Even someone of his natural endowments couldn't have risen to his level without conscious and repeated effort.
It's true that grammar and syntax start to seem natural and subconscious over time, especially as one improves in linguistic fluency. That's a good sign, in fact. But I've never met a writer who couldn't benefit from conscious study of the rules and fundamentals, even if only occasionally.