Changes

Noam Chomsky advocates the view that the human brain has innate ability to generate gramatical sentences, thus all utterances which is deemed sensical to the speaker is necessarily grammatical, and the only role the liguist should play is to decipher its grammatical structure.  This view has been criticized by many linguists as [[nihilism|nihilistic]] in that it rejects the notion of ungrammatical sentences.

Noam Chomsky advocates the view that the human brain has innate ability to generate gramatical sentences, thus all utterances which is deemed sensical to the speaker is necessarily grammatical, and the only role the liguist should play is to decipher its grammatical structure.  This view has been criticized by many linguists as [[nihilism|nihilistic]] in that it rejects the notion of ungrammatical sentences.

===Universal grammar===

===Universal Grammar===

Noam Chomsky also proposed the theory that a kind of universal grammar, a grammar that underlies all human languages, is hard-wired in the human brain.  Thus all human languages are fundamentally the same, with only superficial differences.  This theory of universal grammar has been criticized by linguist Geoffrey Sampson as being not falsifiable, arguing that the grammatical generalizations made are simply observations about existing languages and not predictions about what is possible in a language.  To this day, the search for such universal grammar has been fruitless.

Noam Chomsky also proposed the theory that a kind of universal grammar, a grammar that underlies all human languages, is hard-wired in the human brain.  Thus all human languages are fundamentally the same, with only superficial differences.  This theory of universal grammar has been criticized by linguist Geoffrey Sampson as being not falsifiable, arguing that the grammatical generalizations made are simply observations about existing languages and not predictions about what is possible in a language.  To this day, the search for such universal grammar has been fruitless.