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):

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

• Children:

1. Daughter-  Miriam Lenneberg
2. 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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