Noam chomsky cover

Noam Chomsky

By marksfan

  • Birth

    Birth
    Noam Chomsky was born on December 7,1928 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Chomsky is Jewish, and was born into a middle class family. He wrote an editorial at ten years old that may have given a hint to the fact that he would later develop and interest in politics. The editorial took a look at the fall of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War and the rise of racism in Europe (McGilvray, 2019).

  • University of Pennsylvania

    University of Pennsylvania
    When he was 16 years old Chomsky entered the University of Pennsylvania. He almost left the University, and even considered living on a kibbutz. He changed his mind though after meeting Zellig S. Harris, who was a structural linguist (McGilvray, 2019).

  • Ph.D. in Linguistics

    Ph.D. in Linguistics
    In 1955 Noam Chomsky received a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. He submitted one chapter of His The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory as his thesis. (The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory was written while he was a junior fellow at Harvard from 1951-55 (McGilvray, 2019).

  • MIT

    MIT
    In 2956 Chomsky became a teacher at MIT. He was eventually responsible, along with his colleague Morris Halle, for cresting a new graduate program in linguistics (McGilvray, 2019).

  • Review of Verbal Behavior

    Review of Verbal Behavior
    B.F. Skinner wrote Verbal Behavior, which Chomsky reviewed in 1959. Chomsky refuted the behaviorist view of language learning (McGilvray, 2019).

  • Standard Theory

    Standard Theory
    Aspects of the Theory of Syntax was published by Chomsky in 1965. He spent the 70s revising his "standard theory." This theory basically says that a child's mind has many options for possible methods to construct grammar, and choosing the options that match the linguistic data and that has the fewest rules (McGilvray, 2019).

  • Universal Linguistic Principles

    Universal Linguistic Principles
    Chomsky introduced the idea there are principles that are universal linguistically. He also established that features of the language must be established when the child is very young, if not the person will rarely be able to speak a language as well as a native speaker.

  • Retirement

    Retirement
    Chomsky retired from MIT as professor emeritus in 2002 (McGilvray, 2019).

  • Meaning of Life Video Clip

    This video clip is an excerpt from an interview with Norm Chomsky, who is still living. https://youtu.be/qsQvdo2GEQ4

  • Citations

    McGilvray, James A. "Noam Chomsky." N.p., 12 Dec. 2019. Web. 07 June 2020.