1928-

American Linguist and Philosopher

Noam Chomsky has had a profound and lasting effect on the study of linguistics and language acquisition in this century. Prior to his work, the focus in linguistics (the study of human speech patterns) was based on classification, rather than on exploration for the universal and biological basis of language.

Chomsky was born December 7, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father fled from Russia in 1913 to avoid being drafted into the Czarist army. In America the elder Chomsky supported himself by working in sweatshops, eventually he graduating from John Hopkins University. He wrote many books on the Hebrew language and was an influential teacher, administrator, and champion of the establishment of a Jewish state.

Chomsky's parents had an enormous impact on their son. From an early age Noam and his brother were immersed in the revival of the Jewish culture and...