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Noam Chomsky is Born
Avram Noam Chomsky was born on December 7th, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to parents William Chomsky and Elsie Simonofsky. -
Chomsky Attends University
At age 16, Chomsky began a program of general studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He originally considered dropping out until he met Zellig S. Harris, an American scholar touted for discovering structural linguistics. Harris convinced Chomsky to major in theoretical linguistics and he did. Chomsky was moved by what he felt language could reveal about society. -
Noam and Carol are Married
Noam Chomsky and Carol Doris Schatz are married in 1949, after the two having known each other since 1935 when Carol was five years old. Noam and Carol would have a total of three children throughout their marriage. -
The Society of Fellows
From 1951 to 1955 Chomsky was a member of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, where he undertook research on what became his doctoral dissertation. In 1952 Chomsky published his first academic article, Systems of Syntactic Analysis. This article would explore several ideas that would be fully explained in his first linguistics book, Syntactic Structures. -
"The Morphophoemics of Modern Hebrew" Thesis
Chomsky's Bachelors honors thesis, "Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew" applied Harris' methods to the language. Chomsky revised this thesis for his Masters, which he received in 1951; the thesis was eventually published as a book in 1979.
Chomsky, Noam. Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew. Routledge, 1979. -
Chomsky earns his Doctorate
Though Chomsky had not been a student at Pennsylvania University for four years, he submitted a thesis discussing his ideas on transformational grammar; he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree for it.This thesis would become published in 1975 as part of the Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory. -
Professor Chomsky
In 1955, the professorial staff at Massachusetts Institute of Technology invited Chomsky to become a teacher at their school. He worked in the school's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy for half a century. During his career as a professor, Chomsky introduced transformational grammar to the linguistics field. One of his most famous contributions to linguistics is called the Chomsky Hierarchy, a division of grammar into groups, moving up or down in their expressive abilities. -
Syntactic Structures
This was Chomsky's first published book on linguistics. Responses to Chomsky's ideas ranged from indifference to hostility, and his work proved divisive and caused "significant upheaval" in the discipline. Later the book would be described as a, "revolution to the scientific study of language."
Chomsky, Noam. Syntactic Structures. Mouton De Gruyter, 1957. -
Establishing a Linguistic Theory
Chomsky established his linguistic theory in 1965 with “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax”, and in 1975, with “The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory”. His ideas have significant logical implications for various subjects of psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, sociology and neurology. Chomsky, Noam. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press, 1965.
Chomsky, Noam. The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory. 1975.
The Concept of Language -
Contributions to the Philosophy of Science
One of Chomsky's greatest contributions is his introduction of transformational grammar to the linguistics field. His theory asserts that languages are innate and that the differences we see are only due to parameters developed over time in our brains. The Chomsky Hierarchy has had huge ramifications in fields like psychology, and philosophy, by answering and raising questions about human nature.
Noam Chomsky-Science and Philosophy
