Eric Lenneberg Quick Facts

Eric Lenneberg (1921 –1975) was a 20th century linguist, neurologist, and educator.

Profile

Birth Name: Eric Heinz Lenneberg
Date of Birth: September 19, 1921
Place of Birth: Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Date of Death: May 31, 1975
Place of Death: White Plains, Westchester, New York, USA
Cause of Death: Unknown
Interred at: Unknown
Zodiac Sign: Virgo
Nationality: NA
Ethnicity: Jewish
Father: NA
Mother: NA
Siblings: Helmut Lenneberg
Spouse(s):

Edith Maria Lenneberg née Salomon (1923-2005)
Elizabeth Lenneberg née Smith(1933–2007)

Children:

Daughter- Miriam Lenneberg
Son- Roger Lenneberg

Alma Mater: University of Chicago, Harvard University
Eric Lenneberg is known for: pioneering the biological approach to the study of human language.
Eric Lenneberg is criticized for: not being able to put forward substantial proof against his claim regarding start of lateralization.
Eric Lenneberg was influenced by: NA
Eric Lenneberg influenced: Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker
Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship for Social Sciences, US & Canada

Quotes

“The central nervous system and other tissues in the body develop simultaneously and influence one another continuously during morphogenesis.” ― Eric Lenneberg, Biological Foundations of Language (1967) p. 28

“Animals develop as an integrated whole including structure, function and behavioral capacities.” ― Eric Lenneberg, Biological Foundations of Language (1967) p. 240

“All animals have the ability to group together stimulus configurations which may be physically totally different from each other; however, the animal makes an identical response to certain ones and thus treats them as if they were similar in some respect; we cannot escape the conclusion that for the animal, some similarity exists among such stimuli.” ― Eric Lenneberg, Biological Foundations of Language (1967) p. 298

Major Works

The language of experience (1956)
New directions in the study of language (1964)
Biological Foundations of Language (1967)

Did You Know?

At the age of twelve Eric Lenneberg left Germany with his parents to live in Brazil.
He came to the United States in 1945 and served in the Army for one year.
Lenneberg married twice.
He pioneered the notion that human capacity for language could be explained only on the basis of the biological properties of the brain and vocal tract.
He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Chicago.
Lenneberg obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University in psychology and linguistics in 1956.
He attended Harvard Medical School to study neuroscience.
After earning his Ph.D. he held faculty posts at Harvard University.
From 1964-1965 Lenneberg was a visiting professor of psychology at the University of Zurich.
From 1967–1968 he was a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.
In the fall of 1968 became professor of psychology and neurobiology at Cornell University and Medical School.
He was a visiting professor at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
He was an invited lecturer at the Academia Nacional de Neurologia do Brasil.
He conducted research at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston for locating children with extraordinary language disabilities or living in unusual circumstances to elaborate his theory of language development.
With his wife, Elizabeth, he edited a book for UNESCO entitled Foundations of Language Development: A Multidisciplinary Approach.
His experiments and views were encapsulated in his 1967 book, Biological Foundations of Language.
His Biological Foundations of Language reflected his interest and expertise in both language and psychobiology.
His ideas were subsequently adopted by Noam Chomsky and popularized by Steven Pinker in his book, The Language Instinct.
Lenneberg died prematurely at the age of 53.
Before his demise Lenneberg had been working at Cornell University as the professor of psychology and neurobiology.
He died in White Plains, where he had been working on a, clinical research project in neuropsychology at the WestChester Division of New York hospital‐Cornell Medical Center.

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