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The father of modern linguistics
His theory of biolinguistics. He says that all human languages share a common structure no matter the socio-culutral influences. His theory goes on to say that the differences in language are due to "paramaters developed over time in our brains." Chomsky is widely controversial but the impact of his theories is undeniable.
http://interestingengineering.com/who-is-noam-chomsky-and-why-is-he-famous https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=7Cgpfw4z8cw&feature=emb_logo -
Platos influence
Chomsky was heavily influenced by Plato. He was trying to answer the question that Plato posed in his dialogue Meno. Chomsky held that cognitive science and linguistics was how Plato's question would get answered. -
Childrens minds
Most of what Chomsky was trying to find when he created his theory is how children learn language. His theory "proposed that the mind of the human infant is endowed with a format of a possible grammar, a method of contructing grammars based on the linguistic data to which the child is exposed, and a device that evaluates the relative simplicity of constructed grammars."
http://Britannica.com/biography/Noam-Chomsky/Linguistics -
Principles and parameters
Principles are linguistic universals. They are things that are common to all languages. Parameters "are options that allow for variation in linguistic structure." This theory is that a child's P&P are set with minimal linguistic data they are exposed to.
http://britannica.com/biography/Noam-Chomsky/Linguistics