To venture a guess on the "syntax instinct", I'd say he meant for each language. That is, for ex., babies born in English-speaking homes "know" that 'the red book' is correct, and babies born in homes of languages where the adjective follows the noun know that 'the book red' is correct. Infants can understand speech long before they can create it. Even when they're at the "want ba-ba" stage, they know not to say "ba-ba want".
I am not clear on what is meant by innate literacy. That sounds like he meant babies instinctively know that certain shapes on a page stand for certain sounds--and I simply cannot believe that could happen. Even a simple picture story requires a certain level of development, for comprehension. Let's say there are four flash cards: one shows a boy sitting up in bed, yawning; one shows him standing beside the bed; one shows him unmistakably getting dressed, and the last shows him walking outside with his ball. It would take, I believe, an advanced two-, and more likely, a three-year-old, to be able to put those cards in the correct order--up to a certain point, the mental capacity is simply too undeveloped. And for me to think that a 12-month-old who knows his own name when it's spoken could also look at an A and know that it's an A, would be well-nigh impossible.
