Do Large Language Models Vindicate Skinner’s Approach to Language?

In Verbal Behavior, B. F. Skinner proposed a reinforcement learning account of language acquisition. N. Chomsky’s criticism of this book and his alleged refutation of Skinner’s theses were later regarded as marking the beginning of the decline of behaviorism and the rise of his nativist approach, which dominated the field of linguistics for many decades. Today, the conversational proficiency of large language models challenges the very foundations of the Chomskyan framework, because they not only demonstrate that language can be learned from experience, but also that reinforcement plays a crucial role in this process.