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Works Cited
Cowie, Fiona, "Innateness and Language", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 Edition)
McGilvray, James A, "Noam Chomsky", Encyclopaedia Britannica. Oct 18, 2019.
Noam Chomsky interview: Journal of Advanced Composition, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1991. -
Chomsky Disagrees with Goodman
Nelson Goodman assumed at birth a person's mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) and that language learning is a conditioned response to linguistic stimuli (McGilvray, 2019). Chomsky writes about his different view of language learning in, "The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory" (officially published in 1975). Chomsky believes that humans innately hold basic principles of language and unconsciously construct grammar in accordance with cues from environment. -
Chomsky vs Skinner
Chomsky reviews and challenges B.F. Skinner's book "Verbal Behavior". Chomsky argues that a child does not need to be conditioned when learning a language. Language learning is more complex than just reinforcing behaviors. Chomsky pointed to the fact that a child is able to understand sentences they have never heard before and pushed that language learning occurs largely informally through television and conversation. -
Attempts to solve Plato's problem
Noam Chomsky publishes "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax" in attempt of solving Plato's problem. Chomsky coined the term, "'Plato's problem' as the key strategy for studying most phenomena in the human sciences" (Chomsky, 1991). Chomsky specifically studied the innate knowledge humans possess from birth. Chomsky theorized that a child's mind is equipped with a format of possible grammar. The child's mind is able to construct a possibility of grammars that are consistent with linguistic input. -
Publishes "Knowledge of Language"
Noam Chomsky publishes his book "Knowledge of Language." This book is an elaboration of his theoretical framework "principles and parameters." Chomsky used empirical evidence to support his hypothesis that principles are common across all languages and parameters are options that allow for variation in linguistic structure.
