This almost automatic set of developments and the complexity of the young child’slanguage have led some scholars to look for something more powerful than smallphysical adaptations of the species over time as the source of language. Even childrenwho are born deaf (and do not develop speech) become fluent sign language users,given appropriate circumstances, very early in life. This seems to indicate that humanoffspring are born with a special capacity for language. It is innate, no other creatureseems to have it, and it isn’t tied to a specific variety of language. Is it possible thatthis language capacity is genetically hard-wired in the newborn human?