Chomsky, Noam (1928-) - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Philosophy

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 4 pages of information about Chomsky, Noam (1928–).

Chomsky, Noam (1928-) - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Philosophy

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 4 pages of information about Chomsky, Noam (1928–).
This section contains 1,006 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Chomsky, Noam (1928-) Encyclopedia Article

Noam Chomsky is the foremost linguistic theorist of the post–World War II era, an important contributor to philosophical debates, and a notable radical activist. His influence is felt in many other fields, however, most notably, perhaps, in the area of cognitive studies.

Chomsky's main achievement was to distinguish linguistic competence from its manifestations in performance and to characterize competence as a system of explicit rules for the construction and interpretation of sentences. Indeed, this achievement provided a model for investigations, in this and other cognitive domains, that replaced then-dominant models based on the notion of analogy and oriented to the causal explanation of behavior.

The competence of individuals to use their language is constituted, on Chomsky's account, by their (tacit) knowledge of a formal grammar (or system of rules); their linguistic performance, involving the deployment of such knowledge, may be influenced by a...

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This section contains 1,006 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Chomsky, Noam (1928-) Encyclopedia Article
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Chomsky, Noam (1928-) from Macmillan. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.