n the field of linguistics, Noam Chomsky occupies a position close to that held by Isaac Newton in physics during the eighteenth century. Because language is central to being human, Chomsky has also long occupied a foundational role in the cognitive sciences that have burgeoned since the middle of the twentieth century. While Newton had an equally intense and ambitious career as an alchemist and a doomsday Biblical scholar, the politic Sir Isaac kept these careers, largely successfully, a dark secret. Chomsky, however, has published dozens of books and countless articles throughout his life expressing leftist, egalitarian, anarchist views with almost unimpeachable moral authority and meticulous scholarship. Yet Chomsky has insisted that his scientific work in no way supports or “proves” his political views, other than his insistence that humans, in having cognitive command of a discrete infinity of linguistic structures, are beyond the comprehension of the empiricist behaviorism dominant in mid-twentieth-century American academic circles.
Born in Philadelphia in 1928, Chomsky pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with Zellig Harris, a structural linguist who saw linguistics as the compact description of a community’s time-bound finite corpus of utterances (literally, sonic sequences of supposed phonetic atoms). Chomsky completed his graduate work while a Junior Fellow at Harvard University between 1951 and 1954, and he became a professor at MIT in 1955, rapidly advancing to a series of distinguished professorships. His books Syntactic Structures (1957) and Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965), which have made him the most cited living author, soon revolutionized linguistics.
The opening three sentences of Syntactic Structures tersely render his formalized, mentalist, and nativist view:
Syntactical investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a device for producing the sentences of the language under investigation.… The ultimate outcome of [such] investigations should be a theory of linguistic structures in which the descriptive devices utilized in particular grammars are presented and studied abstractly.… One function of this theory is to provide a general method for selecting a grammar for each language, given a corpus of this language. (Chomsky 1957, p. x)
Formally speaking, one cannot describe a human language by listing its sentences, simply because there are an infinite number of them. One must therefore describe a device that would generate these, and only these, sentences. This “device” would display the knowledge that a competent human speaker of this language has. Language is the device, the internal brain/mind device, not the finite behavioral outputs that this device, coupled with others, produces. Linguistics is thus a branch of psychology.
Behaviorists such as B. F. Skinner thought that knowledge of language consisted of associations between particular words (heard sound sequences). Through repetition, humans learn the sound sequences “How are you,” “I would like a red apple,” and “I am fine,” but not “Are you how,” “Red a like would I apple,” “Am fine I,” and so on. An associative grammar like this is called finite state grammar; it fits well with the empiricist notion that humans learn everything through (sequences of) sensory experience, and it makes no use of“dubious” abstractions such as noun, pronoun, verb, auxiliary verb, or adjective.
Yet there is massive evidence that people routinely produce new sentences that they have never heard before and that have never been produced in the history of their language. Even if sentences are limited to fifteen words or less, there are literally trillions of different but perfectly grammatical sentences of English. In fact, Chomsky gave a decisive formal proof that no human language could be generated by a finite-state grammar. We simply have to internalize at least a phrase structure grammar that makes use of rules that deal in abstract categories such as noun phrase, verb phrase, noun, pronoun, verb, auxiliary verb, adjective, and so on. Indeed, Chomsky proved that even a phrase-structure grammar is not all that is needed, and that the surface structure of a sentence is not a reliable guide to its deeper features.
Human languages have in common many principles and processes, word forms and structures, and rules and features. What the linguist describes, therefore, belongs to human language as much as to a particular language (abstracting, of course, from the peculiarities of particular idiolects and dialects toward humanly universal cognition). Indeed, every one of the hundreds of human language that has been described makes use of the same phrase-structural concepts of noun phrase, verb phrase, pronoun, verb, adjective, and so on. In the linguistic theory of the last two decades, it appears that a small number of principles and initial parameter settings determine every aspect of grammar that makes a human language and differentiates it from other human languages (a good thing, too, because the human baby seems equally prepared to take on any human language to which it is exposed). Chomsky has speculated that a Martian anthropologist would regard all human languages as essentially the same language.
“A general method for selecting a grammar for each language,” given a sample corpus, would also be the knowledge a human child brings to the samples of a language to which the child is exposed. A vast body of evidence about child language development has persuaded nearly all linguists and cognitive scientists that the human child is preprogrammed with a “language acquisition device.” To give an example from personal experience that is familiar to investigators of language learning, the two-year-old daughter of this author, Casey, exploded into using auxiliary verbs and tag negations over the space of two weeks, saying “I am going,” “I can’t,” “Susan isn’t here.” All of the auxiliary verbs came in at virtually the same time, and Casey tag-negated only those verbs, no others: She never said “I eatn’t,” “I gon’t,” “Susan walkn’t,” or “The cat grabn’t the bird.” She also said “I amn’t” and “I am going, amn’t I.” No one around Casey ever said “amn’t,”but she went on happily using the construction, and it wasn’t until she started school two years later that she realized no one else talked that way. Of course, Casey was doing what comes naturally. In some sense, she (or some part of her brain/mind) knew what auxiliary verbs and regular verbs were, and she knew that you could tag-negate (put “n’t” after) auxiliaries but not after other verbs. She also never said “I am going, aren’t I,” because she knew that “am” is a singular verb, that “are” is a plural verb, and that “I,” being a singular pronoun, could not take a plural verb (“are”).
Now, of course, Casey had never heard the English words “noun,” “verb,” “auxiliary verb,” “tag-negate,”“pronoun,” “plural,” or “singular.” Nonetheless, she (or some part of her brain) knew perfectly well the word kinds that these English words name, just as a monolingual speaker of Urdu knows what nouns, pronouns, and verbs are, although he may have no idea what spoken label (in Urdu or English) to use for these perfectly familiar word kinds. It is this sense of knowing, of linguistic competence, that linguistics now clearly emphasizes.
But how did Casey know about these things when no one around her ever tried to explain them to her? The linguist’s answer is that hearing something is an auxiliary verb or a pronoun is just like seeing that something is a red ball or a small animal. So Casey, just like any other human child whether in a literate or tribal community, identified the different word kinds present in her environment, although no one was explicitly coaching her to do this. She recognized that auxiliary verbs, but not other verbs, could be tag-negated, so she said “I amn’t,” just as she said “I can’t” or “He isn’t,” because she saw that “am” was an auxiliary verb, and so could be tagged with “n’t.” Speaking and hearing a natural language is a competence acquired naturally (in the first several years of life), while reading and writing requires—unfortunately—years of effort and explicit instruction. Similarly, our basic visual/motor competencies come to us naturally in our first years. Our recently burgeoning “cognitive sciences” attend to this central aspect of being human, the characteristic competencies or faculties that make us homo sapiens.
Chomsky maintains that his work in linguistics, and cognitive science generally, have virtually no connection with his political and moral views—views for which he claims no expertise, although he has published countless articles, books, interviews, and commentaries on political and moral matters. He claims no professional expertise in such matters because he believes that no one really has such expertise. To Chomsky, political and moral matters can and must be understood by all citizens, not just by elites or would-be professional apologists for elites (or, more particularly, corporate wealth and power). Chomsky rose to public attention (and the Nixon White House’s “enemies” list) for his opposition to the Vietnam War, although his subsequent opposition to U.S. imperialism more generally, particularly in the Middle East, and his criticism of the U.S. media bias have muted his ability to address the U.S. public. Hence, Chomsky and his political and moral views are better known outside of the United States. It should be said that Chomsky has consistently maintained that U.S. behavior, as a dominant world power, is no worse than previous dominant world powers, such as Brita sourcehttp://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Noam_Chomsky.aspx
Books He Wrote
| yntactic Structures, London: Mouton, 1957. /Limited preview available in English/ /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, The Hague: Mouton, 1964. /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1965. /Limited preview available in English/ Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought, New York: Harper and Row, 1966. Language and Mind, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. /Limited preview available in English/ /Excerpt available in English/ The Sound Pattern of English (with Morris Halle), New York: Harper & Row, 1968. American Power and the New Mandarins, New York: Pantheon Books, 1969. At War With Asia, New York: Pantheon Books, 1970. /Limited preview available in English/ Two Essays on Cambodia, Nottingham: Spokesman Books, 1970. Chomsky: Selected Readings (edited by J. P. B. Allen and Paul Van Buren), London: Oxford University Press, 1971. Problems of Knowledge and Freedom, New York: Pantheon Books, 1971. Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar, The Hague: Mouton, 1972. /Limited preview available in English/ /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar, Paris: Mouton, 1972. /Limited preview available in English/ /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ Counter-Revolutionary Violence: Bloodbaths in Fact and Propaganda (with Edward S. Herman), Andover: Warner Modular Publications, 1973. /Full text available in English/ For Reasons of State, New York: Pantheon Books, 1973. /Excerpt available in English/ Peace in the Middle East? Reflections on Justice and Nationhood, New York: Pantheon Books, 1974. The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory, New York: Plenum Press, 1975. Reflections on Language, New York: Pantheon Books, 1975. Essays on Form and Interpretation, New York: North-Holland, 1977. “Human Rights” and American Foreign Policy, Nottingham: Spokesman Books, 1978. Language and Responsibility: Based on Conversations with Mitson Ronat (translated from the French by John Viertel), New York: Pantheon Books, 1979. /Excerpt available in English/ Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew, New York: Garland, 1979. After the Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Construction of Imperial Ideology (with Edward Herman), Boston: South End Press, 1979. /Limited preview available in English/ /Excerpt available in English/ The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism (with Edward Herman), Boston: South End Press, 1979. /Limited preview available in English/ /Excerpt available in English/ Language and Learning: The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky (edited by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini), Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980. /Limited preview available in English/ Rules and Representations, New York: Columbia University Press, 1980. Radical Priorities (edited by Carlos P. Otero), Montréal: Black Rose Books. 1981. /Limited preview available in English//Excerpt available in English/ Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures, Dordrecht, Holland: Foris Publications, 1982. /Limited preview available in English/ Noam Chomsky on the Generative Enterprise: A Discussion with Riny Huybregts and Henk van Riemsdijk, Dordrecht, Holland: Foris Publications, 1982. Some Concepts and Consequences of the Theory of Government and Binding, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1982. /Limited preview available in English/ Towards a New Cold War: Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got There, New York: Pantheon Books, 1982. Language and the Study of Mind, Tokyo: Sansyusya Publishing, 1982. The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians, New York: South End Press, 1983. /Limited preview available in English/ /Excerpt available in English/ Modular Approaches to the Study of the Mind, San Diego: California State University Press, 1984. Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace, Boston: South End Press, 1985./Limited preview available in English/ Pirates and Emperors: International Terrorism in the Real World, New York: Claremont Research & Publications, 1986. /Limited preview available in English/ Barriers, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1986. /Limited preview available in English/ Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use, New York: Praeger, 1986. /Limited preview available in English/ Language in a Psychological Setting, Tokyo: Sophia University, 1987. The Chomsky Reader (edited by James Peck), New York: Pantheon Books, 1987. /Excerpt available in English/ On Power and Ideology: The Managua Lectures, Boston: South End Press, New York: Black Rose Books, 1987. /Limited preview available in English/ Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1988. /Limited preview available in English/ Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (with Edward Herman), New York: Pantheon Books, 1988. The Culture of Terrorism, London: Pluto Press, Boston: South End Press, 1988. /Limited preview available in English/ Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies, Boston: South End Press, 1989. /Full text available in English/ Terrorizing the Neighborhood: American Foreign Policy in the post-Cold War Era, Stirling, Scotland: AK Press, San Francisco: Pressure Drop Press, 1991. Chronicles of Dissent: Interviews with David Barsamian, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1992. /Excerpt available in English/ What Uncle Sam Really Wants, Berkeley, CA: Odonian Press, 1992. /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ Deterring Democracy, London: Verso, 1991. /Full text available in English/ Language and Thought, Wakefield, RI: Moyer Bell, 1993. Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and U.S. Political Culture, Boston: South End Press, 1993. /Full text available in English/ The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many (with David Barsamian), Berkeley, CA: Odonian Press, 1993. /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ Discurs Politic: Tres Converencies a Catalunya, Barcelona: Editorial Empuries, 1993. Year 501: The Conquest Continues, Boston: South End Press, 1993. /Full text available in English/ Secrets, Lies and Democracy, Berkeley, CA: Odonian Press, 1994. /Full text available in English/ /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ World Orders, Old and New, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. /Limited preview available in English/ Keeping the Rabble in Line: Interviews with David Barsamian, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1994. /Full text available in English/ Sprache als Organ, Sprache als Lebensform: Anhang, Interview mit Noam Chomsky Über Linguistik und Politik (with Günther Grewendorf), Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1995. The Minimalist Program, Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1995. /Limited preview available in English/ Class Warfare: Interviews with David Barsamian, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1996. /Excerpt available in English/ Cómo se reparte la tarta: políticas USA al final del milenio, Barcelona: Icaria Editorial, 1996. /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ Powers and Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order, Boston: South End Press, 1996. /Limited preview available in English/ /Excerpt available in English/ Democracy in a Neoliberal Order: Doctrines and Reality, Cape Town: University of Cape Town, 1997. Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, New York: Seven Stories Press, 1997, updated 2002./Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ /Excerpt available in English/ Language and Politics (edited by Carlos P. Otero), Montréal: Black Rose Books, 1998. /Limited preview available in English/ Noam Chomsky habla de América Latina (interviews with Heinz Dieterich), La Habana: Casa Editora Abril, 1998. (Later published as Hablemos de terrorismo) /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ Acts of Aggression: Policing "Rogue States" (with Edward Said and Ramsey Clark), New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999./Limited preview available in English/ Profit over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order, New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999. /Limited preview available in English/ The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1999. /Limited preview available in English/ /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ /Excerpt available in English/ The Umbrella of U.S. Power: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Contradictions of U.S. Policy, New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999. /Limited preview available in English/ The Architecture of Language (edited by Nirmalangshu Mukherji, Bibudhendra Narayan Patnaik, Rama Kant Agnihotri), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. /Excerpt available in English/ A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West, London: Verso, 2000. Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs, Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2000. /Limited preview available in English/ /Limited preview available in Italian/ /Excerpt available in English/ New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. /Limited preview available in English/ 9-11, New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001. /Limited preview available in English/ /Excerpt available in English/ Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky (with David Barsamian), Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2001. /Limited preview available in English/ Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World (updated edition), London: Pluto, 2002. /Limited preview available in English/ Peering into the Abyss of the Future, New Delhi: Institute of Social Sciences, 2002. On Nature and Language, with an essay on “The secular priesthood and the perils of democracy” (edited by Adriana Belletti and Luigi Rizzi), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. /Limited preview available in English/ Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky (edited by Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel), New York: The New Press, 2002. /Excerpt available in English/ The Common Good: Interviews with David Barsamian, Berkeley, CA: Odonian Press, 2002. /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ /Excerpt available in English/ Bush y los años del miedo: Conversaciones con Jorge Halperín, Buenos Aires: Capital Intelectual, 2003. Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship, New York: The New Press, York: Signature Books Services, 2003. Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, New York: Metropolitan Books, 2003. /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ /Excerpt available in English/ Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews (edited by John Junkerman and Takei Masakazu), New York: Seven Stories Press, Tokyo: Little More, 2003. /Limited preview available in English/ Middle East Illusions (including Peace in the Middle East? Reflections on Justice and Nationhood), Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003. /Limited preview available in English/ Chomsky on Democracy and Education (edited by Carlos P. Otero), New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003. /Limited preview available in English/ Chomsky on Miseducation (edited by Donaldo Macedo), Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004. /Limited preview available in English/ Getting Haiti Right This Time, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2004. /Excerpt available in English/ Letters from Lexington: Reflections on Propaganda, Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2004. /Limited preview available in English/ /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ The Generative Enterprise Revisited: Discussions with Riny Huybregts, Henk van Riemsdijk, Naoki Fukui, and Mihoko Zushi, with a new foreword by Noam Chomsky, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2004. /Limited preview available in English/ El terror como política exterior de Estados Unidos, Buenos Aires: Libros del Zorzal, 2005. /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ /Extracto del libro disponible en castellano/ Chomsky on Anarchism (edited by Barry Pateman), Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2005. /Limited preview available in English/ Rules and Representations, New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Government in the Future, New York: Seven Stories Press, 2005. The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature (with Michel Foucault), New York: The New Press, distributed by W.W. Norton, 2006. /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy, New York: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 2006. Perilous Power: The Middle East and US Foreign Policy: Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War, and Justice (with Gilbert Achcar, edited by Stephen Shalom), Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2006. /Limited preview available in Turkish/ What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World: Interviews with David Barsamian, New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007. Interventions, San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2007. /Limited preview available in English/ /Vista previa limitada disponible en castellano/ The Essential Chomsky (edited by Anthony Arnove), New York: The New Press, 2008. Of Minds and Language: A Dialogue with Noam Chomsky in the Basque Country (edited by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, Juan Uriagereka, and Pello Salaburu), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. /Limited preview available in English/ New World of Indigenous Resistance: Voices from the Americas (edited by Lois Meyer and Benjamín Maldonado Alvarado), San Francisco: City Lights, 2010. Hopes and Prospects, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2010. /Limited preview available in English/ Making the Future: The Unipolar Imperial Moment, San Francisco: City Lights, 2010. Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians (with Illan Pappé), Chicago: Haymarket Books, October 2010. /Excerpt available in English/ Power and Terror: Conflict, Hegemony, and the Rule of Force, Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, March 2011. 9-11: Was there an Alternative? (New Edition), New York: Seven Stories Press, September 2011. A New Generation Draws the Line: Humanitarian Intervention and the "Responsibility to Protect" Today (Expanded Edition), Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, forthcoming November 2011. |
Quotes
Noam Chomsky Quotes | ||
| 1 - 2 All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume. Noam Chomsky Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media. Noam Chomsky As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss. Noam Chomsky Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever. Noam Chomsky Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Noam Chomsky Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way. Noam Chomsky Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune. Noam Chomsky Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it. Noam Chomsky Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world. Noam Chomsky I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system. Noam Chomsky If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged. Noam Chomsky If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion. Noam Chomsky If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. Noam Chomsky In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival. Noam Chomsky Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation. Noam Chomsky Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state. Noam Chomsky Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony. Noam Chomsky States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions. Noam Chomsky The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history. Noam Chomsky The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it I'd be ashamed of myself. Noam Chomsky | ||
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