Noam Chomsky

Professional Life

Avram Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928, in Philadelphia. He was raised in a Hebrew environment and was exposed to anarchist politics, Zionism and anti-Semitism from a young age. Chomsky attended the Oak Lane County Day School and graduated from the Central High School of Philadelphia. He enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania and focused his studies on linguistics and philosophy, earning his Bachelor’s and his Master’s from UPenn. In 1955, Chomsky earned his Ph.D. in linguistics, also from UPenn, and spent time at Harvard conducting research for his doctorate thesis. The four years he spent as a Harvard Junior Fellow produced not only a prominent thesis, but also led to the eventual publication of one of his most acclaimed books on linguistics, Syntactic Structures.

In 1955, Chomsky left Harvard to accept a position with MIT. A few short years later, he earned his full professorship. Chomsky held several different titles during his more than a half of century with MIT, including Institute Professor and Ferrari P. Ward Professorship. Chomsky was also very active in politics and his anti-war views, published in several of his writings, caused controversy and led to several death threats. An expert in linguistics, Chomsky still travels regularly and conducts seminars, workshops and speaking engagements.

Contribution to Psychology

Chomsky is best known for his influence on linguistics, specifically, the development of transformational grammar. Chomsky believed that formal grammar was directly responsible for a person’s ability to understand and interpret mere utterances. Although Chomsky did not believe that language was innate, he did theorize that animals and humans were both capable of similar types of comprehension when exposed to specific linguistic information, but only humans could continue to develop those abilities through a process he called “language acquisition device (LAD).” Chomsky thought that if the LAD for all human languages could be discovered, it could result in features that would be universal to all tongues, known as “universal grammar.”

Chomsky further developed his linguistic theories in a series of lectures which were published under the name of Lectures on Government and Binding. The lectures covered the Principles and Parameters (P&P) technique that Chomsky formed based on the assumption that every language had similar parameters that could be manipulated and modified. By doing so, learning a language would only require the acquisition of a core set of linguistic principles.

Chomsky also contributed to the field of phonology and influenced the works of other experts including Michael Tomasello and Elizabeth Bates. He explored language hierarchy, a method of classification that has impacted the computer science field dramatically. Chomsky’s linguistic discoveries have benefited the field of psychology in many ways as well. Linguistics itself is a discipline of cognitive psychology, and strives to understand how language is learned and used by children.

In addition to his impact on psychological approaches, Chomsky also contributed to the literary field with his more than 100 published books. He has been recognized for his work as an activist, philosopher, scientist, and professor with numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science and the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.