There's a tremendous amount of language loss. Most of the attention is given to indigenous languages, which makes sense, but some of… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
The fact that all normal children acquire essentially comparable grammars of great complexity with remarkable rapidity suggests that human beings are somehow… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
There are very deep and restrictive principles that determine the nature of human language and are rooted in the specific character of… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
The syntactic component of a grammar must specify, for each sentence, a deep structure that determines its semantic interpretationand a surface structure… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
In fact, by universal grammar I mean just that system of principles and structures that are the prerequisites for acquisition of language,… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
When I was a college student and I got interested in linguistics the concern among students was, this is a lot of… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
It's perfectly obvious that there is some genetic factor that distinguishes humans from other animals and that it is language-specific. The theory… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Welsh is now almost a national language in Wales. The Scottish dialects are reviving to some extent. I don't think it's a… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
I think the use of language is a very important means by which this species, because of its biological nature, creates a… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
I don't think there is any scientific evidence about the question of whether we think only in language or not. But introspection… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Precisely constructed models for linguistic structure can play an important role, both negative and positive, in the process of discovery itself. By… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
UG [universal grammar] may be regarded as a characterization of the genetically determined language faculty. One may think of thisfaculty as a… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
I think the most important work that is going on has to do with the search for very general and abstract features… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
There is a narrow class of uses of language where you intend to communicate. Communication refers to an effort to get people… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
We do not for example say that the person has a perfect knowledge of some language L similar to English but still… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
You could imagine a language exactly like English except it doesn't have connectives like 'and' that allow you to make longer expressions.… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
The truth of the matter is that about 99 percent of teaching is making the students feel interestedin the material. Then the… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Language would have evolved first as an internal object, a kind of "language of thought" (LOT), with externalisation (hence communication) an ancillary… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
One thing that you and I know is language. Another thing that you and I know is how objects behave in perceptual… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Some innate capacity - some part of the human genetic endowment - enters into language acquisition. That much is uncontroversial among those… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
If you go back a century in Europe, all over the place people were speaking different languages. There were dozens of languages… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
I did not say that language as a completed system emerged in an individual in an instant. But I cannot think of… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Hence, a generative grammar must be a system of rules that can iterate to generate an indefinitely large number of structures. This… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
By a generative grammar I mean simply a system of rules that in some explicit and well-defined way assigns structural descriptions to… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
The very properties of the human mind that provide an enormous scope for human genius in some domains will serve as barriers… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
No one seriously doubts that if Piraha children are brought up in Boston they'll be speaking Boston English, that is, that the… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Historical grammar is a study of how, say, modern English developed from Middle English, and how that developed from Early and Old… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
“In rational inquiry, we idealize to selected domains in such a way (we hope) as to permit us to discover crucial features… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Our yearning for democracy is accompanied by a no less profound yearning for peace. And the media also faced the task of… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
The costs of the Bush-Obama wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now estimated to run as high as $4.4 trillion - a major victory… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
If you believe in democracy, why shouldn't you know what the government is doing? — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
It’s a shameful moment for U.S. media when it insists on being subservient to the grotesque propaganda agencies of a violent, aggressive state. — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
There are questions as to whether it should even exist. Who should corporations be responsive to, the management of a corporation? Theoretically they are… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy, and they have to be - protect themselves. That's why you have state secret laws.… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
I don't join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn't have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
The first thing you ought to do is verify what I present. Just because I say it doesn't make it true. So check it… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
I wrote an article about the marine landing [in Haiti] right away, but barely mentioned the oil, because my article would come out two… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
American society is now remarkably atomized. Political organizations have collapsed. In fact, it seems like even bowling leagues are collapsing. The left has a… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
There's an interesting book about that called The Third Reich and the Ivory Tower, written by Stephen H. Norwood. It has a long discussion… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
This is class war on an international scale, and power is in the hands of those who control the international economic system. — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
There are big, extremely irrational parts of the society, and they have now been mobilized politically by the Republican establishment, hoping that these people… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
There's plenty to criticize about the mass media, but they are the source of regular information about a wide range of topics. You can't… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share
The 50,000 Korean mercenaries we had in Vietnam were professional killers and just massacred people outright. And the American army did plenty of that… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share