In conversation some months ago with Mr. Robert Escudero (linguistics expert of La Canada, California) I learned that linguists hold two quite different positions about the origin and nature of human language — empiricist and rationalist. Empiricists believe that language is largely a learned or acquired response. They assert that the human has no special capacity for language as such but only a general ability to learn. Rationalists, on the other hand, suggest that man has an inborn capability for language which makes him qualitatively different than the other creatures. Rationalists maintain that language is the outworking of what they call an "innate specification." The evidence favors the rationalist view.