Noam Chomsky
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Noam Chomsky is a Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at M.I.T. and a libertarian socialist intellectual and political dissident. He is usually identified with the rationalist or nativist tradition in psychology.
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Linguistics and psychology
Chomsky has made important contributions to the field of linguistics, most prominently his ideas of generative grammar (in which the grammar of a language is described by sets of rules transforming one grammatical construct into another) and the Chomsky hierarchy, classifying languages based on restrictions imposed upon the form of these rules. Several of the classes of grammars in the Chomsky hierarchy have proven useful in computer science, so next time you write a regular expression, you'll know whom to thank.[1]
His work in the philosophy of linguistics and the philosophy of mind made him one of the leading figures of the cognitive revolution. This contributed so greatly to the field of psychology that he was listed the 38th most influential figure in the 20th century in the field in the Review of General Psychology despite his specialization in linguistics.[2]
Chomsky argued against the behaviorism of B.F. Skinner on the topic of language acquisition. One of his most famous arguments is the "poverty of the stimulus," i.e. that children acquire language with insufficient input from the environment for language to be learned entirely by a behaviorist stimulus-response mechanism. This argument remains a topic of some controversy, especially among pscyhologists and linguists that take a more empiricist approach.[3] Chomsky posited an innate "language acquisition device," a "mental organ" that allowed for the derivation of syntactical structure and grammatical rules of language.[4] These phenomena were thought to play a central role in a "Universal Grammar."[5] However, Chomsky has backed off some of his harder claims in recent times, reformulating generative grammar in terms of what became known as the "minimalist program."[6] Some empiricist critics of Chomsky, such as Michael Tomasello, maintain that language does have a biological basis, but that this basis is in the ability to imitate rather than in any mechanisms specifically designed for verbal language.[7]
Politics
Chomsky is also well-known for his political commentary. He is a regular contributor to Z Magazine and its online outlet Z Communications.[8] Perhaps his most famous political book is his criticism of the media, Manufacturing Consent, co-authored with Edward S. Herman. He has also written dozens of books critical of United States foreign policy. At a 2006 UN session, Hugo Chavez recommended Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival as an important text on the subject of American imperialism, giving the author some renewed publicity.[9]
Chomsky is not a fan of Postmodernism.[10]
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ s/t[a-z]{4}/curse/g
- ↑ The 100 Most Eminent Psychologists of the 20th Century
- ↑ Stephen Laurence and Eric Margolis. The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument. British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, vol. 52, 2001, pp. 217-276
- ↑ Language Acquisition Device, J-Rank
- ↑ Linguistic Universals and Universal Grammar in the MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science
- ↑ The Minimalist Program: A Bridge Principle in Biolinguistics, Garrett Neske
- ↑ Michael Tomasello. Language Is Not an Instinct. Cognitive Development, 10, 131-156 (1995)
- ↑ Chomsky's writings at Z Communications
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/23/books/23chomsky.html?_r=1
- ↑ Chomsky on Postmodernism