« All Language Quotes · Noam Chomsky's Page
Language Quotes by 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…
- Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world.
- Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs.
- It's perfectly obvious that there is some genetic factor that distinguishes humans from other animals and that it is language-specific. The theory of that genetic…
- When I was a college student and I got interested in linguistics the concern among students was, this is a lot of fun, but after…
- The truth of the matter is that about 99 percent of teaching is making the students feel interestedin the material. Then the other 1 percent…
- There are very deep and restrictive principles that determine the nature of human language and are rooted in the specific character of the human mind
- By a generative grammar I mean simply a system of rules that in some explicit and well-defined way assigns structural descriptions to sentences. Obviously, every…
- Hence, a generative grammar must be a system of rules that can iterate to generate an indefinitely large number of structures. This system of rules…
- We do not for example say that the person has a perfect knowledge of some language L similar to English but still different from it.…
- The fact is that if you have not developed language, you simply don't have access to most of human experience, and if you don't have…
- I think that in order to achieve progress in the study of language and human cognitive faculties in general it is necessary first to establish…
- The most striking aspect of linguistic competence is what we may call the 'creativity of language,' that is, the speaker's ability to produce new sentences,…
- There is no reason to believe ... that the "essential purpose" of language is "communication". ... Language can be used to transmit information, but it…
- Our yearning for democracy is accompanied by a no less profound yearning for peace. And the media also faced the task of historical engineering to…
- Language is one component of the human cognitive capacity which happens to be fairly amenable to enquiry. So we know a good deal about that.
- If a child from an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe comes to Boston, is raised in Boston, that child will be indistinguishable in language capacities from my…
- As Bromberger observed, rules are understood to be elements of the computational systems that determine the sound and meaning of the infinite array of expressions…
More Language Quotes
- It's no accident, I think, that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis… — Andre Agassi
- But I liked Yeats! That wild Irishman. I really loved his love of language, his flow. His chaotic ideas seemed to me… — Chinua Achebe
- Part of what makes a language 'alive' is its constant evolution. I would hate to think Britain would ever emulate France, where… — Joanne Kathleen Rowling
- The transition from Religion to Scientific contemplation is a violent, dangerous leap, which is not to be recommended. In order to make… — Friedrich Nietzsche
- If the English language had been properly organized ... then there would be a word which meant both 'he' and 'she', and… — A A Milne
- I hope you never hear those words. Your mom. She died. They are different than other words. They are too big to… — Mitch Albom
- In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement… — Aristotle
- The finest command of language is often shown by saying nothing. — Roger Babson