Difference between revisions of "Noam Chomsky"

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Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is a Jewish linguist who is best known for his insight and writings on language, language acquisition, and the development of modern linguistics as a field of study. He is also a philosopher, an activist and a critic of modern politics. He is an institute professor & professor of linguistics (Emeritus) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ^[1].

Linguistics and Generative Grammar

Chomsky developed the idea of generative grammar and "started" the linguistic discussion in the 1950's not on simply how a language is structured, but why it must be structured that way, how the speakers change the inherent structure of a given language, and what commonalities exist in all human languages - thus suggesting the nature of language itself. By placing the core of language inside the mind, biologically, Chomsky challenged the idea of the behavioral side to language acquisition, arguing that children are born with the core of language already present, possessing "Universal Grammar". The idea of language as a biological system has a direct impact on Philosophy of the Mind as well as the Philosophy of Identity, topics Chomsky has also written on.

Political Views

He has always been very critical of American and Israeli foreign policy and sympathizes with Palestinians and has shown support for the terrorist organization Hezbollah^[2]. He has also been criticized for anti-Semitism.

His opponents accuse him of expressing admiration for governmental systems such as the Soviet Union, Chinese and Cambodian governments which are characterized by central control, xenophobia, and rejection of free expression, though he has openly expressed opposition to the Soviet Union and other regimes characterized by authoritarianism, arguing that they are not legitimate forms of socialism.^[3] He also counters that he is merely pointing out the West's own crimes and not condoning authoritarian governments that the West opposes. His stated justification for this is that criticism of other authoritarian governments will do nothing except give the United States ammunition against other countries, while being able to freely ignore their own crimes, whereas criticism of his own country may bring about what he considers to be positive reform. Chomsky identifies himself as a libertarian socialist who is opposed to both neoliberalism and authoritarianism. ^[4]

Background

Chomsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of William Chomsky, a Russian immigrant, and Elsie Simonofsky Chomsky. His parents both practiced Judaism. His father taught Hebrew, and published a scholarly edition of a medieval Hebrew grammar.^[5]. He received his education at the University of Pennsylvania where he studied linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy, and eventually earned his Ph. D. in 1955. Since then, he has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He previously held the Ferrari P. Ward Chair of Modern Language and Linguistics, and is now an Institute Professor.

Anti-Semitism

Chomsky has been criticized for anti-Semitism.^[6][7]. In addition to his support for Hezbollah, He has stated that Jews are "the most privileged and influential part of the population", and that "Anti-Semitism is no longer a problem. It's raised, but it's raised because privileged people want to make sure they have total control, not just 98% control"^[8]. His statements show striking similarities with classic anti-Semitism.

Chomsky has also been a vocal supporter of controversial author Norman Finkelstein, author of The Holocaust Industry, who has argued that claims of anti-Semitism are used to silence critics of Israel and that the Holocaust is exploited by some Jewish institutions for their own gain.^[9]

It should be noted that both Finkelstein and Chomsky are from Jewish-American backgrounds ^[10][11], and that both Chomsky's parents were devout and involved in Jewish scholarship. It is unclear whether Chomsky still practices Judaism.

Chomsky's Criticisms of the West

Chomsky is one of the most vocal critics of the United States foreign policy. Some of his criticisms are:

1. The overthrow of democratic and secular leader Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and replacement with the Shah, a brutal dictator in 1953 (Done by the US and the UK)
2. The overthrow of social democrat Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954
3. The overthrow of democratic socialist Salvador Allende in Chile on 9/11 in 1973
4. The Dirty War against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s
5. The backing of a brutal military dictatorship in El Salvador during the same time period
6. Selling weapons to a terror-state (Iran) to fund another terrorist group (The Contras). (See Iran-Contra Affair)
7. Selling weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.
8. Supporting the mujahideen which later became al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1980s
9. Invading Iraq in 2003 despite lack of support from the UN
10. Blatant Support of Israel which Chomsky believes is a terror state despite his Jewish ethnicity

(Source: Hegemony or Survival)

Many of his critics claim that Chomsky's books are riddled with factual inaccuracies ^[12].

Linguistic Works

Generative Grammar

Noam Chomsky advocates the view that the human brain has innate ability to generate grammatical sentences, thus all utterances which is deemed sensical to the speaker is necessarily grammatical, and the only role the linguist should play is to decipher its grammatical structure. This view has been criticized by many linguists as nihilistic in that it rejects the notion of ungrammatical sentences. Noam Chomsky also pointed to instances of infants utter grammatical sentence fragments they have not been taught before as evidence for Generative 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.

For decades, Noam Chomsky and his followers have been trying to make sense of sentences such as:

Who will be easy for us to get his mother to talk to?

which are deemed to be ungrammatical by a lot of linguists; by using techniques such as linking theory, anti-c-command requirement, A-positions, Bijection Principle, weakest crossover configurations, bound variable anaphora, asymmetric linking, licensing conditions, index of a pronoun, null operator analysis, variable binding, configurational conditions, inappropriate and appropriate antecedents, etc.

See Also

• List of Chomsky's Publications
• Chomsky Speaks about American Politics Chomsky believes the Democrats and Republicans are a single entity
• Video of Noam Chomsky with Hezbollah Leaders in Lebanon
• The Chomsky Hoax by Paul Bogdanor
• Grammar Without Grammaticality by Geoffrey Sampson
• Chomsky's New Blood Libel by Alan Dershowitz
• Chomsky on Middle East Television Chomsky speaks about American Imperialism

References

1. ↑ http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/chomsky/index.html
2. ↑ http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=11&x_article=1151
3. ↑ http://chomsky.info/articles/1986----.htm
4. ↑ http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19446
5. ↑ http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/chomsky_noam.html
6. ↑ http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/IP_Dershowitz.htm
7. ↑ http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15381
8. ↑ http://www.variant.randomstate.org/16texts/Chomsky.html
9. ↑ University denies tenure to Holocaust academic, Mail & Guardian, 12 June 2007.
10. ↑ [1]
11. ↑ http://www.tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/noamchomsky2005
12. ↑ http://www.paulbogdanor.com/200chomskylies.pdf