Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky is more than a linguist, although he has made significant
contributions in this field. He is also an activist, political
critic, historian, logician, cognitive scientist and philosopher.
He works at MIT in their Department of Linguistics and Philosophy,
and has been at that educational institution for more than 50
years.
Noam Chomsky |
|
Chomsky is known for his writings on mass media, politics and
war and has authored more than 100 books. He is called the "Father
of Modern Linguistics", and his varied works have also influenced
the fields of psychology, mathematics and computer science. Chomsky
has been known as a critic of state capitalism and United States
foreign policy, as well as of the mainstream media outlets. He
more readily identifies himself with classical liberalism and
anarchist views.
Born in 1928 into an affluent area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
his father was a Ukrainian immigrant who had worked in sweat shops
and then in teaching. Chomsky's mother was also a teacher. His
father felt the importance of education, as well as in making
life more worthwhile and meaningful, and he fostered these feelings
in his son.
Chomsky's main early education was at a small, independent learning
institution where pupils were allowed to engage in the pursuit
of their own individual interests, without competition. At the
age of 10, he wrote his first insightful article about the spread
of fascism after the Spanish civil war.
In college, Chomsky was influenced by George Orwell, a democratic
socialist and Rudolf Rocker, an Anarcho-syndicalist. He studied
linguistics and philosophy, and was introduced to the links between
classical liberalism and anarchism by Rocker.
In 1955, after receiving a linguistics PhD at the University of
Pennsylvania, Chomsky would conduct a part of his doctoral research
as a Junior Fellow at Harvard. In his thesis, he started to develop
his ideas in linguistics, which he would elaborate on in Syntactic
Structures, his book of 1957 that is one of his most well-known
linguistic works.
Chomsky was appointed to a professor position at MIT in 1961,
in what was then called Modern Languages and Linguistics. He challenged
the theories of structural linguistics and introduced transformational
grammar. His approach uniquely states that word sequences have
a syntax that is characterized by a type of grammar that is more
formal.
One of his more influential contributions to linguistics is his
claim that the modeling of the knowledge of language using formal
grammar will account for the creativity or productivity of the
language. In plainer terms, he believes that formal grammar helps
in explaining the ability of hearers and speakers to produce and
also interpret infinite numbers of utterances. This includes novel
utterances, made even with limited rules of grammar and finite
terms.
Chomsky acknowledges a debt to Panini, based on his acceptance
of the modern notion of explicit and generative grammar. He actually
did not prove that our language is innate entirely, nor that there
is a universal type of grammar. In actuality, he only observed
that young humans and young animals exposed to the same stimuli
will not both acquire an understanding and ability to produce
a language. Only the human has those capabilities.
Rumor has it …
Noam Chomsky wrote his first and only novel while in a snowbound,
isolated hotel. Every page of the novel repeated the same sentence,
"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could
chuck wood?"
Written by Kevin Lepton
|
