The Minimalist Thesis

The Minimalist Thesis is a theory in linguistics suggesting that the core principles of human language are very simple and universal, relying on innate, minimal rules shared across all languages. It proposes that the complex structures we see are built from these basic, universal principles, with much of language variation resulting from optional features or additional elements. This idea aims to explain why languages can be so diverse yet share fundamental similarities, suggesting that language capacity is governed by a small set of innate mental tools that develop into the rich variety of languages we observe.