Avram Noam Chomsky nom tmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist,philosopher,[4][5] cognitive scientist, and activist.

He is an Institute Professor and Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics and a major figure of analytic philosophy. His work has influenced fields such as computer science, mathematics, and psychology. Chomsky is credited as the creator or co-creator of the Chomsky hierarchy, the universal grammar theory, and the ChomskySchtzenberger theorem.

Full name Noam Chomsky philosophy Other names Avram Noam Chomsky Born December 7, 1928 (age 82) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Era Region MAIN INTERSES 20th / 21st-century philosophy Western philosophy

School

Generative linguistics,Analytic

Linguistics Psycholog,Philosophyflanguage Philosophy Politics Ethics of mind

Notable ideas Generative grammar,universal grammar,transformational grammar,government and binding, Xbar theory, Chomsky hierarchy, context-free grammar, principles and parameters, Minimalist program, language acquisition device, poverty of the stimulus, ChomskySchtzenberger theorem,Chomsky Normal Form,propaganda model

Contributions to linguistics Chomskyan linguistics, beginning with his Syntactic Structures, a distillation of his Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory (1955, 75), challenges structural linguistics and introduces transformational grammar. This approach takes utterances (sequences of words) to have a syntax characterized by a formal grammar; in particular, a context-free grammar extended with transformational rules. Perhaps his most influential and time-tested contribution to the field, is the claim that modeling knowledge of language using a formal grammar accounts for the "productivity" or "creativity" of language. In other words, a formal grammar of a language can explain the ability of a hearerspeaker to produce and interpret an infinite number of utterances, including novel ones, with a limited set of grammatical rules and a finite set of terms. He has always acknowledged his debt to Pini for his modern notion of an explicit generative grammar although it is also related to rationalist ideas of a priori knowledge.

It is a popular misconception that Chomsky proved that language is entirely innate and discovered a "universal grammar" (UG). In fact, Chomsky simply observed that while a human baby and a kitten are both capable of inductive reasoning, if they are exposed to exactly the same linguistic data, the human child will always acquire the ability to understand and produce language, while the kitten will never acquire either ability. Chomsky labeled whatever the relevant capacity the human has which the cat lacks the "language acquisition device" (LAD) and suggested that one of the tasks for linguistics should be to figure out what the LAD is and what constraints it puts on the range of possible human languages. The universal features that would result from these constraints are often termed "universal grammar" or UG.[34] The Principles and Parameters approach (P&P)developed in his Pisa 1979 Lectures, later published as Lectures on Government and Binding (LGB)makes strong claims regarding universal grammar: that the grammatical principles underlying languages are innate and fixed, and the differences among the world's languages can be characterized in terms of parameter settings in the brain (such as the pro-drop parameter, which indicates whether an explicit subject is always required, as in English, or can be optionally dropped, as in Spanish), which are often likened to switches. (Hence the term principles and parameters, often given to this approach.) In this view, a child learning a language need only acquire the necessary lexical items (words, grammatical morphemes, and idioms), and determine the appropriate parameter settings, which can be done based on a few key examples. Proponents of this view argue that the pace at which children learn languages is inexplicably rapid, unless children have an innate ability to learn languages. The similar steps followed by children all across the world when learning languages, and the fact that children make certain characteristic errors as they learn their first language, whereas other seemingly logical kinds of errors never occur (and, according to Chomsky, should be attested if a purely general, rather than language-specific, learning mechanism were being employed), are also pointed to as motivation for innateness. More recently, in his Minimalist Program (1995), while retaining the core concept of "principles and parameters," Chomsky attempts a major overhaul of the linguistic machinery involved in the LGB model, stripping from it all but the barest necessary elements, while advocating a general approach to the architecture of the human language faculty that emphasizes principles of economy and optimal design, reverting to a derivational approach to generation, in contrast with the largely representational approach of classic P&P. Chomsky's ideas have had a strong influence on researchers of the language acquisition in children, though many researchers in this area such as Elizabeth Bates[35] and Michael Tomasello[36] argue very strongly against Chomsky's theories, and instead advocate emergentist orconnectionist theories, explaining language with a number of general processing mechanisms in the brain that interact with the extensive and complex social environment in which language is used and learned. His best-known work in phonology is The Sound Pattern of English (1968), written with Morris Halle (and often known as simply SPE). This work has had a great significance for the development in the field. While phonological theory has since moved beyond "SPE phonology" in many important respects, the SPE system is considered the precursor of some of the most influential phonological theories today, includingautosegmental phonology, lexical phonology and optimality theory. Chomsky no longer publishes on phonology. Generative grammar The Chomskyan approach towards syntax, often termed generative grammar, studies grammar as a body of knowledge possessed by language users. Since the 1960s, Chomsky has

maintained that much of this knowledge is innate, implying that children need only learn certain parochial features of their native languages.[37] The innate body of linguistic knowledge is often termed universal grammar. From Chomsky's perspective, the strongest evidence for the existence of Universal Grammar is simply the fact that children successfully acquire their native languages in so little time. Furthermore, he argues that there is an enormous gap between the linguistic stimuli to which children are exposed and the rich linguistic knowledge they attain (the "poverty of the stimulus" argument). The knowledge of Universal Grammar would serve to bridge that gap. Chomsky's theories have been immensely influential within linguistics, but they have also received criticism. One recurring criticism of the Chomskyan variety of generative grammar is that it is Anglocentric and Eurocentric, and that often linguists working in this tradition have a tendency to base claims about Universal Grammar on a very small sample of languages, sometimes just one. Initially, the Eurocentrism was exhibited in an overemphasis on the study of English. However, hundreds of different languages have now received at least some attention within Chomskyan linguistic analyses.[38][39][40][41][42] In spite of the diversity of languages that have been characterized by UG derivations, critics continue to argue that the formalisms within Chomskyan linguistics are Anglocentric and misrepresent the properties of languages that are different from English.[43][44][45] Thus, Chomsky's approach has been criticized as a form of linguistic imperialism. [46] In addition, Chomskyan linguists rely heavily on the intuitions of native speakers regarding which sentences of their languages are well-formed. This practice has been criticized on general methodological grounds. Some psychologists and psycholinguists,[who?] though sympathetic to Chomsky's overall program, have argued that Chomskyan linguists pay insufficient attention to experimental data from language processing, with the consequence that their theories are not psychologically plausible. Other critics (see language learning) have questioned whether it is necessary to posit Universal Grammar to explain child language acquisition, arguing that domaingeneral learning mechanisms are sufficient. Today there are many different branches of generative grammar; one can view grammatical frameworks such as head-driven phrase structure grammar, lexical functional grammar and combinatory categorial grammar as broadly Chomskyan and generative in orientation, but with significant differences in execution.

Leonard Bloomfield

Born

April 1, 1887 Chicago, Illinois

Died

April 18, 1949 (aged 62) New Haven, Connecticut

Citizenship

American

Education

Harvard College, University of WisconsinMadison, University

of Chicago, University of Leipzig,University of Gttingen

Occupation

Linguist

Employer

University of Cincinnati,University of Illinois, Ohio State University, University of Chicago,Yale University

Spouse

Alice Sayers

Children

James Sheldon Bloomfield, Roger Montour Bloomfield (Both adopted)

Parents

Sigmund Bloomfield, Carola Buber Bloomfield

Leonard Bloomfield (April 1, 1887 April 18, 1949) was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. His influential textbook Language, published in 1933, presented a comprehensive description of American structural linguistics.[1] He made significant contributions to Indo-European historical linguistics, the description of Austronesian languages, and description of languages of theAlgonquian family. Bloomfield's approach to linguistics was characterized by its emphasis on the scientific basis of linguistics, adherence to behaviorism especially in his later work, and emphasis on formal procedures for the analysis of linguistic data. The influence of Bloomfieldian structural linguistics declined in the late 1950s and 1960s as the theory of Generative Grammar developed by Noam Chomsky came to predominate.

Early life and education

Bloomfield was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 1, 1887. His father Sigmund Bloomfield immigrated to the United States as a child in 1868; the original family name Blumenfeld was changed to Bloomfield after their arrival in the United States.[2] In 1896 his family moved to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, where he attended elementary school, but returned to Chicago for secondary school.[3] His uncle Maurice Bloomfield was a prominent linguist at Johns Hopkins University,[4][5] and his aunt Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler was a well-known concert pianist.[4]

Indo-European linguistics
Bloomfield's earliest work was in historical Germanic studies, beginning with his dissertation, and continuing with a number of papers on Indo-European and Germanic phonology and morphology.[17][18] His post-doctoral studies in Germany further strengthened his expertise in theNeogrammarian tradition, which still dominated Indo-European historical studies.[19] Bloomfield throughout his career, but particularly during his early career, emphasized the Neogrammarian principle of regular sound change as a foundational concept in historical linguistics.[14][20]

Sanskrit studies

As part of his training with leading Indo-Europeanists in Germany in 1913-1914 Bloomfield studied the Sanskrit grammatical tradition originating with Pini, who lived in northwestern India during the sixth century B.C.[27] Pini's grammar is characterized by its extreme thoroughness and explicitness in accounting for Sanskrit linguistic forms. Bloomfield noted that "Pini gives the formation of every inflected, compounded, or derived word, with an exact statement of the sound-variations (including accent) and of the meaning."[28] In a letter to Algonquianist Truman Michelson, Bloomfield noted "My models are Pini and the kind of work done in Indo-European by my teacher, Professor Wackernagel of Basle."[29]

Austronesian linguistics
Bloomfields work on Tagalog, from the beginning of field research to publication, took no more than two years.[35] His study of Tagalog has been described as the best treatment of any Austronesian language The result is a description of Tagalog which has never been surpassed for completeness, accuracy, and wealth of exemplification.[36] Bloomfield's only other publication on an Austronesian language was an article on the syntax of Ilocano, based upon research undertaken with a native speaker of Ilocano who was a student at Yale University. This article has been described as a "tour de force, for it covers in less than seven pages the entire taxonomic syntax of Ilocano."[37][38]

Algonquian linguistics
Bloomfields work on Algonquian languages had both descriptive and comparative components. He published extensively on four Algonquian languages: Fox, Cree, Menominee, and Ojibwe, publishing grammars, lexicons, and text collections. Bloomfield used the materials collected in his descriptive work to undertake comparative studies leading to the reconstruction of Proto-Algonquian, with an early study reconstructing the sound system of Proto-Algonqian,[39] and a subsequent more extensive paper refining his phonological analysis and adding extensive historical information on general features of Algonquian grammar. Ferdinand de Saussure ( /ssr/ or /sosr/; French pronunciation: [fdin d sosy]; 26 November 1857 22 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the fathers of 20th-century [1][2] linguistics. However, most modern linguists and philosophers of language consider his ideas outdated.
[3]

Some philosophers of language, though mainly literary theorists, believe that these critics are themselves applying outdated argumentation to portray Saussurean ideas as obscurantist or deliberately distorted. [4] While Saussure's conceptsparticularly semioticshave received little to no attention in modern linguistic textbooks,
[5]

his ideas have significantly influenced the humanities and social sciences.

Semiotics
Saussure is one of the founding fathers of semiotics. His concept of the sign/signifier/signified/referent forms the core of the field.

Laryngeal theory
While a student, Saussure published an important work in Indo-European philology that proposed the existence of ghosts in Proto-Indo-European called sonant coefficients. The Scandinavian scholar Hermann Mller suggested that these might actually be laryngeal consonants, leading to what is now known as the laryngeal theory. It has been argued that the problem Saussure encountered, of trying to explain how he was able to make systematic and predictive hypotheses from known linguistic data to unknown linguistic data, stimulated his development of structuralism. Saussure's predictions about the existence of primate

coefficients/laryngeals and their evolution proved a resounding success when the Hittite texts were discovered and deciphered, some 50 years later.

Biography
Jones was born in London at Beaufort Buildings, Westminster; his father (also namedWilliam Jones) was a mathematician from Anglesey in Wales, noted for devising the use of the symbol pi. The young William Jones was a linguistic prodigy, learning Greek, Latin,Persian, Arabic, Hebrew and the basics of Chinese writing at an early age.[1] By the end of his life he knew thirteen languages thoroughly and another twenty-eight reasonably well, making him a hyperpolyglot. Though his father died when he was only three, Jones was still able to go to Harrow in September 1753 and on to Oxford University. He graduated from University College, Oxford in 1768 and became M.A. in 1773. Too poor, even with his award, to pay the fees, he gained a job tutoring the seven-year-old Lord Althorp, son of Earl Spencer. He embarked on a career as a tutor and translator for the next six years. During this time he published Histoire de Nader Chah (1770), a French translation of a work originally written in Persian by Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi. This was done at the request of King Christian VII of Denmark who had visited Jones - who by the age of 24 had already acquired a reputation as an orientalist. This would be the first of numerous works on Persia, Turkey, and the Middle East in general.

Scholarly contributions
Of all his discoveries, Jones is best known today for making and propagating the observation that Sanskrit bore a certain resemblance to classical Greek and Latin. In The Sanscrit Language (1786) he suggested that all three languages had a common root, and that indeed they may all be further related, in turn, to Gothic and the Celtic languages, as well as to Persian. His third annual discourse before the Asiatic Society on the history and culture of the Hindus (delivered on 2 February 1786 and published in 1788) with the famed "philologer" passage is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies. This is Jones' most quoted passage, establishing his tremendous find in the history of linguistics: [3]