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Noam Chomsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Chomsky began his studies at the University of Pennsylvania. While there he met Zellig S. Harris, an American scholar who was famous for discovering structural linguistics. This sparked Chomsky's love for linguistics.
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Chomsky finished his master's thesis. Chomsky believed that the basic concepts of language were innate in every human's mind and then only influenced by one's syntactical environment.
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Chomsky was asked to work as a professor emeritus at MIT's department of Linguistsics & Philosophy for 50 years.
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Noam Chomsky continued at the University of Pennsylvania and did research and writing at Harvard University. He then published a best known book on linguistics, "Syntactic Structures".
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During his time at MIT, Chomsky continued to introduce transformational grammar to the linguistics field. His theory stats that languages are innate and the differences are only due to parameters developed over time in our brains, helping to explain why children are able to learn different languages more easily than adults. He also introduced the "Chomsky Hierarchy" which is a division of grammar into groups, moving up or down int their expressive abilities.
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Chomsky retired from teaching at MIT after 50 years
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To this day, Noam Chomsky continues to be a highly respected and sought-after thinker who continues to author new books and remains active in the lecture circuit.
