Biography
- 1928 - present
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Linguistics, cognitive psychology, language acquisition
- Noam Chomsky is an American linguist and cognitive psychologist who is known for his contributions to the understanding of language and the mind. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later studied at the University of Pennsylvania. Chomsky's work has focused on the ways in which language is acquired, used, and represented in the mind, and he has developed influential theories about the nature of language and the underlying mental structures that enable its use. His ideas have had a significant impact on the fields of linguistics, cognitive psychology, and philosophy of language.
Highlight
- Noam Chomsky is known for his contributions to the understanding of language and the mind, and has developed influential theories about the nature of language and the underlying mental structures that enable its use.
- B. F. Skinner - Chomsky's work in linguistics and cognitive psychology has been heavily influenced by the behaviorist ideas of B. F. Skinner, but he has also been a critic of Skinner's views on language and mind.
Books
- Syntactic Structures - a major work by Chomsky that outlines his theory of universal grammar, which suggests that the ability to acquire and use language is innate to the human mind.
- Language and Mind - a book by Chomsky that discusses the relationship between language and thought, and the ways in which language shapes and is shaped by the mind.
Concepts
- Universal grammar - the idea that the human mind is equipped with an innate set of mental structures that enable the acquisition and use of language, and that these structures are common to all human languages.
- Language acquisition - the process by which children learn to use and understand language. Chomsky's theories have had a significant impact on the understanding of this process.
- Mind-body dualism - the idea that the mind and body are separate and distinct entities, and that the mind is not reducible to the physical processes of the brain. Chomsky has argued that the mind-body dualism is implicit in the way we think about language and cognition.
References
- Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.
- Chomsky, N. (1972). Language and mind (Enlarged ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
- Noam Chomsky. (n.d.). In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chomsky/