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Noam Chomsky (1928-Present)
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Language Acquisition Device
Language Acquisition Device Theory Video
Chomsky developed his theory of the Language Acquisition Device during the 1950s. This theory states that children are born with a mental module that enables them to acquire language. It is believed to be a part of the human brain that facilitates unconscious learning of language during childhood. It provides a set of rules that are common to all languages, allowing them to adopt any language they are exposed to. -
Syntactic Structures Published
Chomsky’s most memorable book was published, outlining his theories for linguistics. Some of the language concepts discussed in the book include syntactic categories and phrase structure rules, universal grammar, deep and surface sentence structure, and generative capacity. These are just some of the key ideas from the book. “Syntactic Structures” laid the foundation for later development of linguistic theory and the study of syntax. -
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax Published
In “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax” Chomsky dives deeper into the idea of deep structure and surface structure. Chomsky argued that every sentence has a deep structure, which represents its underlying meaning, and a surface structure, which is the actual arrangement of words and phrases. The transformational rules manipulate the deep structure to generate various surface structures. -
Knowledge of Language Published
In “Knowledge of Language,” Chomsky continues to explore the nature of human language and proposes a theory of generative grammar. Chomsky suggests that there are underlying principles and structures that are shared by all languages, regardless of their surface differences. He argues that while performance may vary due to external factors such as memory limitations or speech errors, underlying linguistic competence remains intact.