Language Quotes by Noam Chomsky

Human language is nothing like the signalling systems of other animals.

— Noam Chomsky

It's as if we're higher apes who had a language faculty inserted.

— Noam Chomsky

Language etches the grooves through which your thoughts must flow.

— Noam Chomsky

My linguistics is pretty theoretical.

— Noam Chomsky

Language is one component of the human cognitive capacity which happens to be fairly amenable to enquiry. So we know a good…

— Noam Chomsky

While language can surely be used for communication (as can much else), communication probably has no special role in its design or…

— Noam Chomsky

There is a kind of nonlinguistic thought going on which we are trying to represent in language, and we know that sometimes…

— Noam Chomsky

Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs.

— Noam Chomsky

Selfish-gene theory tells us nothing about the value of interacting through language.

— Noam Chomsky

It's true that language is in a sense linear but that is as obvious as perceptual space is three-dimensional.

— Noam Chomsky

The structure of language determines not only thought, but reality itself.

— Noam Chomsky

Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world.

— Noam Chomsky

For one thing, studying language is by itself a part of a study of human intelligence that is, perhaps, the central aspect…

— Noam Chomsky

Of course language arose in a Darwinian biological world, because that's all there is, but that world relates only superficially to the…

— Noam Chomsky

As Bromberger observed, rules are understood to be elements of the computational systems that determine the sound and meaning of the infinite…

— Noam Chomsky

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation…

— Noam Chomsky

English is a second language in most of the educated sectors of Europe and much of the world. But maybe in the…

— Noam Chomsky

The fact is that if you have not developed language, you simply don't have access to most of human experience, and if…

— Noam Chomsky

I have not suggested that the emergence of language is instantaneous. Rather, that the rewiring of the brain enabling an infinite array…

— Noam Chomsky

If we understood, as we do not, the physical bases for intellectual structures, I have little doubt that we would find structures…

— Noam Chomsky

UG [universal grammar] may be regarded as a characterization of the genetically determined language faculty. One may think of thisfaculty as a…

— Noam Chomsky

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

Precisely constructed models for linguistic structure can play an important role, both negative and positive, in the process of discovery itself. By…

— Noam Chomsky

There is a narrow class of uses of language where you intend to communicate. Communication refers to an effort to get people…

— Noam Chomsky

I think the most important work that is going on has to do with the search for very general and abstract features…

— Noam Chomsky

It's commonly assumed that the emergence of language was a key element of the great leap. We of course know very little…

— Noam Chomsky

Imagine an extrahuman observer looking at us. Such an extrahuman observer would be struck precisely by the uniformity of human languages, by…

— Noam Chomsky

You can imagine a different world in which a number of species developed with different genetically determined linguistic systems. It hasn't happened…

— Noam Chomsky

. . . among all grammars meeting this condition (of adequacy), we select the simplest.

— Noam Chomsky

I doubt that national languages will disappear. In fact, to some extent they're becoming more diverse, like in Europe.

— Noam Chomsky

For us, we are all very different, our languages are very different, and our societies are very different. But if we could…

— Noam Chomsky

Descriptive grammar is an attempt to give an account of what the current system is for either a society or an individual,…

— Noam Chomsky

The most striking aspect of linguistic competence is what we may call the 'creativity of language,' that is, the speaker's ability to…

— Noam Chomsky

If a child from an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe comes to Boston, is raised in Boston, that child will be indistinguishable in language…

— Noam Chomsky

Plainly, children learn their language. I don't speak Swahili. And it cannot be that my language is 'an innate property of our…

— Noam Chomsky

I think a very important aspect of language has to do with the establishment of social relations and interactions. Often, this is…

— Noam Chomsky

A language is not just words. It's a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what…

— Noam Chomsky

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

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

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