Yes, I read the language instinct many years ago. It's an interesting read but it's been a long time, maybe I should go back to it.

What I think is really interesting though is that although there is definitely an instinct for language, exposure is incredibly important. We start to form our phoneme inventory (the sounds that we use) before birth and the first six months are critical - babies babble in accent. With grammar I think you need exposure in the first few years of life. Children who don't get this at all (the occasional 'feral' child) do not form grammars and cannot do so in later years. So we have the capablility but we have to also be exposed.