> 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.
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.