Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky (1928- ), American linguist, educator, and political activist, educated at the University of Pennsylvania. He is regarded as the founder of transformational-generative grammar, an original system of linguistic analysis that revolutionized linguistics. Chomsky believes that language is the result of an innate human faculty and that the aim of linguistics is, therefore, to determine what universal properties are and to establish a “universal grammar” which would account for the range of linguistic variation humanly possible. His analyses of language start with basic sentences, from which are developed an endless variety of syntactic combinations by means of a set of rules that he formulates. At the end of a chain of syntactic rules are phonological rules governing pronunciation.

Chomsky also introduced the concept of linguistic competence and linguistic performance (building on the distinction between langue and parole developed by Saussure) that is, the innate knowledge speakers possess about a language (a psychological process) and their actual use of a language (an actual speech event that takes place). He put forward the idea that linguistic competence and performance combined are both factors in the production of utterances. American linguist Dell Hymes later developed Chomsky’s theories with the notion of communicative competence. Chomsky’s generative grammar theory is often contrasted with that of M. A. K. Halliday, who developed a systemic-functional theory.

Chomsky joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955 and became known not only as a teacher and writer but as an articulate opponent of American involvement in the Vietnam War. More recently his writings, which have been best-sellers around the world and translated into many languages, articulate his vehement opposition to the Bush administration and its foreign policy, as he argues for more devotion to the advancing of human rights, the stopping of arms dealings, and the strengthening of international institutions.

His major linguistic publications are Syntactic Structures (1957), Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965), The Sound Pattern of English (1968; with Morris Halle), Language and Mind (1972), The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory and Reflections on Language (both 1975). Language and Responsibility (1979) links language and politics; Chomsky's political writings include American Power and the New Mandarins (1969); The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians (1983; and an updated edition, 1999); and Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Domninance (2003).

See also Syntax.