The field of language acquisition is divided over the question of whether the inbornmechanisms underlying linguistic development include actual grammatical categories andprinciples or are of a more general character. Recent proposals suggest a possible convergence ofviews on this matter, with implications for the study of both first language acquisition andsecond language learning. This paper explores this possibility by examining the evolution ofgrammatical nativism with particular emphasis on a radical shift in the generality of the inbornprinciples that have been posited in recent work. The nature and implications of this shift areillustrated with the help of developmental data involving gap-containing structures in first andsecond language acquisition.