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Graduated with a Ph. D in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania
Submitted one chapter of The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory (LSLT) to earn his doctorate where he held the principle that the mind was not a tabula rasa (blank slate) and that the human mind has the innate ability to learn a language and there is an innocuous construction of grammar rules that occurs due to this. Chomsky, Noam. The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory. Springer US, 1961. -
Appointed to a teaching position at MIT
He would then after become a major figure in the field of linguistics and significantly change how the field and cognition are looked at and studied. -
THREE MODELS FOR TIE DESCRIPTION OF LANGUAGE
Chomsky's earlier work looking into grammar structure and how it affects linguistics. Chomsky, Noam (1956), "Three models for the description of language" (PDF), IRE Transactions on Information Theory, 2 (3): 113–124, doi:10.1109/TIT.1956.1056813 -
“Syntactic Structures”
It is unique for saying there was a biological perspective to look at for language and helped form the field of cognitive science. He shows there are basic phrase structure rules and that those break down into" transformations". As seen in the sentence in the picture, he showed that syntax and semantics are separate and that sentence could be grammatically correct with no meaning.
Chomsky, Noam (1957), Syntactic Structures, The Hague/Paris: Mouton, ISBN 978-3-11-021832-9 -
A Review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior
This review is a strong critique of Rationalism in regards to language development and a part of the paradigm shift from Behaviorism to Cognitivism. He says it is more than just imitation and reinforcement and that children likey have innate abilities to generalize and process the information needed to learn a language. Chomsky, Noam (1959). "Reviews: Verbal behavior by B. F. Skinner". Language. 35 (1): 26–58. doi:10.2307/411334. -
Aspects in the Theory of Syntax
Proposed that the mind of the human infant is endowed with a “format” of a possible grammar. That a child's mind can construct a number of possible grammars and picks the one with the least rules Chomsky, Noam (1965), Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, ISBN 9780262260503 -
Noam Chomsky on Language Acquisition (video)
Noam Chomsky on Language Acquisition This video shows how Chomsky caused a paradigm shifty in the study of linguistics and how his work changed the approach to studying the subject
