http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/517

This is a link about The biology of the language of Noam Chomsky. For me it was so interesting and for that reason i wanted to share it with all of you :D i hope you like it.

Chomsky on Semantics

The study of meaning and reference and of the use of language should be excluded from the field of linguistics. . . . Given a lingustic theory, the concepts of grammer are constructed (so it seems) on the basis of primitive notions that are not semantic (where the grammar contains the phonology and syntax), but that the linguistic theory itself must be chosen so as to provide the best possible explanation of semantic phenomena, as well as others.

"It seems that other cognitive systems -- in particular, our system of beliefs concerning things in the world and their behavior -- playan essential part in our judments of meaning and reference, in an extremely intricate manner, and it is not at all clear that much will remain if we try to separate the purely linguistic components of what in informal usage or even in technical discussion we call 'the meaning of lingustic expression.' "

"He showed that surface structure played a much more important role in semantic interpretation that had been supposed; if so, then the Standard hypothesis, according to which it was the deep structure that completely determined this interpretation, is false." 

Chomsky on Language Acquisition

According to Noam Chomsky, the mechanism of language acquisition formulates from innate processes. This theory is evidenced by children who live in the same linguistic community without a plethora of different experiences who arrive at comparable grammars. Chomsky thus proposes that "all children share the same internal contraints which characterize narrowly the grammar they are going to construct." (Chomsky, 1977, p.98) Since we live in a biological world, "there is no reason for supposing the mental world to be an exception." And he believes that there is a critical age for learningn a language as is true for the overall development of the human body.

Chomsky's mechanism of language acquisition also links structural linguistics to empiricist thought: "These principles [of structuralism and empiricism] determine the type of grammars that are available in principles. They are associated with an evaluation procedure which, given possible grammars, selects the best one. The evaluation procedure is also part of the biological given. The acquisition of language thus is a process of selection of the best grammar compatible with the available data. If the principles can be made sufficiently restrictive, there will also be a kind of 'discovery procedure.

Noam Chomsky Biography

Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His undergraduate and graduate years were spent at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his PhD in linguistics in 1955. During the years 1951 to 1955, Chomsky was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows. While a Junior Fellow he completed his doctoral dissertation entitled, "Transformational Analysis." The major theoretical viewpoints of the dissertation appeared in the monograph Syntactic Structure, which was published in 1957. This formed part of a more extensive work, The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory, circulated in mimeograph in 1955 and published in 1975. 

Chomsky joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (now the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.) From 1966 to 1976 he held the Ferrari P. Ward Professorship of Modern Languages and Linguistics.

Some Works by Chomsky.

Chomsky, Noam. (1964). Current issues in linguistic theory.

The Hague: Mouton.

--- (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax.

Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.

--- (1966). Cartesian linguistics: a chapter in the history of

rationalist thought. New York: Harper & Row.

--- (1966). Topics in the theory of generative grammar.

The Hague: Mouton.

--- (1966). Perspectives on Vietnam: [microform] speech by Noam

Chomsky as part of a program presented by the Faculty Peace Committee, November 10, 1966, at the University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley: Academic Publishing.

--- (1968). Language and mind. New York:

Harcourt, Brace & World.

--- (1968). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.

--- (1969). American Power and the New Mandarins.

Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.

--- (1969). I nuovi mandarini; gli intellettuali e il potere in America.

Torino: G. Einaudi.

--- (1969) L'Amerique et ses Nouveaux Mandarins.

Paris, Editions du Seuil

--- (1970). "Notes on Anarchism," New York Review of Books. v. 14,

no 10, May 21, 1970, pp. 31-35.

--- (1970). At war with Asia. New York: Pantheon Books.

--- (1970). Two essays on Cambodia. Nottingham:

Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation for The Spokesman.

--- (1971). Chomsky: selected readings. edited by J. P. B. Allen and Paul

Van Buren. London, New York: Oxford University Press.

--- (1971). Problems of knowledge and freedom. New York:

Pantheon Books.

--- Jakobson, Roman, Halle, Morris. (1972). Hypothèses,

trois entretiens et trois études sur la linguistique et la poétique.
[Traduction,] présentations et contributions de Jean-Pierre Faye,
Jean Paris, Jacques Roubaud, Mitsou Ronat.
Paris: Seghers, Laffont.

--- (1972). Language and mind. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

--- (1972). Studies on semantics in generative grammar. The Hague:

Mouton.

--- (1972). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.

--- (1973). Conoscenza e libertá. Torino: Einaudi.

--- (1973). For reasons of state. New York: Pantheon Books.

--- (1974). Peace in the Middle East? Reflections on justice and nationhood.

Time Line

1928 ~ Birth in Philadelphia, PA 

1949 ~ Creation of undergraduate thesis

1951 ~ Completion of thesis, Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew

1957 ~ Published the novel Syntactic Structures

1957 ~ Made associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1960 ~ Given title of full professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1975 ~ Became institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1990 ~ Published On Nature, Use and Acquisition of Language 

Theory

Chomsky's research and influence on linguistics changed and modernized the discipline. For many years there has been a battle between linguistics as to whether language acquisition is innate or learned. Chomsky argues that language acquisition is an innate structure, or function, of the human brain.

Although known that there are structures of the brain that control the interpretation and production of speech, it was not clear as to how humans acquired language ability, both in its interpretive sense and its production. This is where Noam Chomsky made his contribution.

There are a few factors that Chomsky has used to support his theory of language acquisition. First is that there is an optimal learning age. Between the ages 3 to 10 a child is the most likely to learn a language in its entirety and grasp fluency. After this age, it is hard and even considered impossible for the child to completely grasp the language. This is why school systems are criticized for teaching foreign languages in high school and not in elementary.

The second factor is that the child does not need a trigger to begin language acquisition, it happens on its own. The parent does not need to coax the child to speak, if it around language production, the child will work to produce that language on its own. Several things may help the child develop faster, such as the parent producing baby talk, or being read to on a consistent basis. But these things only have a small effect, and if they are not done, the child will still eventually learn to speak without them.

Another factor found was that it does not matter if a child is corrected, they still grasp the language in the same manner and speak the same way. During one stage, a child will make things plural that are already plural. For example, a child will say geeses instead of geese. It does not matter how many times a child is corrected, the child still says geeses. In one documented case, a child, after being corrected several times by the mother to say feet instead of feets, looked at the mother, said "ohh," as if she understood and then proceeded to say feets.

Another fact is that children go through stages of language acquisition in which they learn certain parts of the language. They all go through these stages at the same time, around the same age. A child in China, will follow the same linguistic patterns of language acquisition as a child in the United States. It is with these observations, along with knowledge about neurological structures that control linguistic communication and interpretation, that Chomsky argues that language is innately organized.