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Birth
Noam Chomsky was born in East Oak Lane, Philadelphia, PA on December 7, 1928 -
Just 10!
Noam wrote an editorial when he was 10 for his newspaper class. it described the fall of Barcelona during the Spanish civil war and the rise of fascism in Europe. The research he did for this would later serve as a basis for “Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship” (1969). Which is Chomsky’s critical review of a study of the period by the historian Gabriel Jackson. 1* -
Period: to
University of Pennsylvania
He was only 16 when he started his undergraduate studies in 1945. He achieved a bachelor’s degree in linguistics in 1949, a master’s degree in 1951, and later earned his doctorate in 1955. 4* -
Period: to
Harvard
He was a member of Harvard University's society of fellows. It was here that he developed the theory of transformational grammar. He earned his doctorate on this in 1955. -
Another famous work continued.
Chomsky rejected this belief and instead believed human beings were born with the innate ability to "realize the generative grammars that constitute every human language. Children make use of this innate ability to learn the languages that they are exposed to." 2* -
Another famous work
In 1957 he published “Syntactic Structures”. During this time concepts of the origin of language were inspired by behaviorist ideas. An example being B. F. Skimmer who was a renowned psychologist. He "advocated that newborn babies had a blank mind (tabula rasa) and that children acquired language by means of learning and mimicry." 2* -
Published
"American Power and the New Mandarins"
“Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship” -
A hit to his reputation
In support of the free speech rights of Robert Faurisson, Noam signed a petition. He was a French lecturer who denied the existence of the gas chambers used in Nazi concentration camps. This caused Chomsky to become involved in a heated controversy. He responded that "his views are "diametrically opposed" to Faurisson's conclusions and his intent was to support Faurisson's civil liberties not his Holocaust denial." However, the damage was done and his reputation suffered in France for a time 3* -
Another book
"Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" with Edward S. Herman -
And another
"On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare" -
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References
1* James A. McGilvray, Noam Chomsky, July 19, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Noam-Chomsky
2* Noam Chomsky - Biography, Facts and Pictures, Famousscientists.org, https://www.famousscientists.org/noam-chomsky/ (paragraphs 4 & 5)
3* Noam Chomsky Biography, Biography.com Editors, April 16, 2019 https://www.biography.com/scholar/noam-chomsky (paragraph 14)
4* Noam Chomsky - Biography, Facts and Pictures, Famousscientists.org, https://www.famousscientists.org/noam-chomsky/ (paragraph 3)