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Early Life of Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania on December 7th, 1928. His life's course would soon be foreshadowed at the age of 10, when he wrote an article for the school paper expressing his grief over the fall of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil war and the rise of Fascism across the European Continent.
At just 16 years old, Chomsky attended the University of Pennsylvania. It was there where he met Zellig S. Harris (founder of structural linguistics) who guided him in life. -
Rise of Chomsky's Views
1959 started the rise of Chomsky's beliefs being accepted worldwide. First his review of "Verbal Behavior" became the definitive rebuttal against behaviorist views of language learning. Then he published his books "Aspects of Cartesian Linguistics" (1965) and "Cartesian Linguistics" (1966). He believed that the mind of a human infant, is endowed with a format of possible grammar based off the language they are exposed to. (Short Video Below) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cgpfw4z8cw -
Establishing His Legacy
In the 1980s, he further expanded on his ideas of linguistics. He wrote 2 books, "Government and Binding" (1981) & "Knowledge of Language" (1986). In these books he lays the foundation to what will be referred to as Universal Grammar. He believed the human brain has an innate mental grammar that helps us acquire languages. (Short Video Below) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfiHd6DyuTU -
Present Day and Activist Life
Chomsky would go on to continue to refining his work. Publishing several articles in the early 2000's such as the “The Language Faculty” (2002), & “Three Factors in Language Design” (2005) However, despite all of his groundbreaking theories in linguistics, he was also a well entrenched political activist. He published several works throughout his life criticizing wars and the medias involvement in them. His political views are just as famous as his scientific ones. -
List of Noam Chomsky's Major Works
Chomsky, Noam, ‘Review of Verbal Behavior by B.F. Skinner’, 1959 Chomsky, Noam. Aspects of a Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA. MIT Press. 1965 Chomsky, Noam. Cartesian Linguistics. Harper & Row. NY. 1966 Chomsky, Noam. Government and Binding. Foris Publications. 1981 Chomsky, Noam. Knowledge of Language. Praeger Publishers. CT. 1986 -
References
Pablo Stafforini. "The Noam Chomsky Site." December 2003 https://chomsky.info/ James A. McGilvray. 'Noam Chomsky: American Linguist." Britannica. 3 Dec 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Noam-Chomsky
