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Early Life
Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928 in Pennsylvania during the Great Depression where he saw many injustices including security officers beating women for striking outside a textile plant. His parents were Hebrew Scholars and he also had a younger brother named David. At thirteen, Chomsky spent much of his time at his uncle's newsstand, which is where his lived-experience stance on politics came about. -
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Education
Chomsky began at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945, where he got his bachelor’s degree in linguistics in 1949. He then went on to achieve a master’s degree in 1951, and then his doctorate in 1955. -
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Married Life
Chomsky married in 1949. His wife, Carol Schatz, was an educational specialist and someone he knew his entire childhood. Schatz died from cancer in 2008 and they had three kids together. -
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Later Life (2005 - Present)
In the years after his education, Chomsky was invited to teach at MIT where he stayed until retiring in 2005. He amassed many awards including an honorary fellowship at the Literary and Historical Society (2005), The Uppsala University Honorary Doctor’s degree (2007), and the President’s Medal from the Literary and Debating Society of the National University of Ireland, Galway (2008). In 2014, he remarried to Valeria Wasserman at the age of 85. -
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (late 1970s)
Chomsky rejected the belief that newborns had a blank mind and only learned through mimicry, as proposed by psychologist B. F. Skinner. He instead proposed the theory that the mind of an infant is born with the ability to understand certain grammars that pertain to every language. The infant can then use this to learn the specific language they are exposed to. -
Sources
Biography.com Editors. "Noam Chomsky." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 24 Apr. 2020. Web. 10 Aug. 2020. McGilvray, James A. "Linguistics." Encyclopædia Britannica.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 12 Dec. 2019. Web. 10 Aug. 2020. "Noam Chomsky." Famous Scientists. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Aug. 2020. -
Youtube Video: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax