Constructing “Small Yet Efficient” Language Models: A Response to Dr. Bai on First Principle of Language and Universal Grammar

Yuan Yulin

Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning ›› 2026, Vol. 11 ›› Issue (3) : 28-40.

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Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning ›› 2026, Vol. 11 ›› Issue (3) : 28-40. DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260302

Constructing “Small Yet Efficient” Language Models: A Response to Dr. Bai on First Principle of Language and Universal Grammar

  • Yuan Yulin
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Abstract

Bai Shuo (2025) recently proposed that we should delve deeper into the first principle of language to create “small yet efficient” low-resource language models and argued that whether language is “learned” is not the essence of Chomskyan linguistic theory. We hold that, in contrast, “linguistic innateness” is the first principle of Chomskyan linguistic theory, since it is essential for humans’ innate “linguistic faculty” to endow humans with recursive abilities, allowing “infinite use of finite means”. The language ability of large language models, however, is learned, and their success is based on “finite use of infinite data”. As far as language technology and language engineering are concerned, it is infeasible or unworkable at this stage to construct “small yet efficient” language models on the first principle of language. While the theory of humans’ innate linguistic faculties still lacks sufficient scientific evidence, the statistical learning theory currently strives to prove that the brains of human infants can perceive external objects, acquire knowledge, and learn language through a conceptual system. The criticism of large language models and the pursuit of “small yet efficient” language models from the linguistic perspective that “language is not learned but an innate ability” may reflect a weakness in scholarly thinking, namely, the “theory-induced blindness”. As surveys and experiments guided by the theory of constructed emotion reveal, what classical emotion theories refer to as emotional universality, often regarded as fact by researchers, is actually the effect of experimental designs. This serves as a wake-up call for the study of universal grammar.

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first principle of language / “small yet efficient” language model / Universal Grammar / theory-induced blindness

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Yuan Yulin. Constructing “Small Yet Efficient” Language Models: A Response to Dr. Bai on First Principle of Language and Universal Grammar[J]. Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(3): 28-40 https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260302

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