noam abraham chomsky He was born in Philadelphia (USA) in 1928, specifically on December 7. He is a linguist (thanks to his father, since he was the one who directed his steps towards the study of linguistics) and also philosopher-thinker.
The education received at home (he grew up in a Jewish environment, learned Hebrew and constantly listened, together with his brother David Eli Chomsky, to debates about politics of zionism, as his family was very involved in left-wing Zionism), he directed his studies and also his concerns to the world of thought.
I study in the University of Pennsylvania, where he was influenced by Zellig Harris. Finished the Doctorate in 1951After this, he spent four years at Harvard and finally, in 1955, he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, where he himself studied to begin an intense and long career. teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Your linguistics and your philosophy, what do they consist of?
He is one of the main founders of the transformational-generative grammar.
What is transformational-generative grammar?
Behind this long and complicated name is a system of linguistic analysis that competes with traditional linguistics to be related to philosophy, logic, and psycho-linguistics.
In 1957 he published his book "Syntactic structures", a book that was considered a revolution in the discipline of linguistics. In it, Chomsky suggests that every human utterance has two structures:
- Una surface structure, which is the way to superficially combine words.
- And one deep structure which is based above all on universal rules and mechanisms. In this structure it is argued that the means to acquire a language are natural in all human beings and are activated as soon as a child begins to learn the fundamentals of a language. That is, a series of innate grammatical structures which would therefore be common to all humanity.
Great political activist
Es a great critic of capitalism, especially with the foreign policy of the United States. It was in 1967 that he began his foray into political activism, totally opposing America's involvement in the Vietnam War. From this he got his essay book entitled "The responsibility of intellectuals", for which he obtained great recognition.
It was associated with the 'New Left' (New Left), and for that it was arrested several times for his anti-war activism. Chomsky, along with Edward S. Herman, promoted a critical propaganda model with everything related to US foreign policy, and even when he retired, he continued his activism by directly supporting the movement 'Occupy' and others with similar characteristics.
He married Carol Schatz Doris in 1949, with whom he was until 2008, the year of her death. With this relationship he had three children: Aviva, Diane, and Harry. In 2014, he married Valeria Wasserman.
Most notable works
About linguistics
- 1957: "Syntactic structures"
- 1965: "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax"
- 1965: "Cartesian Linguistics"
- 1968: "Language and mind"
- 1970: "Current Publications in Linguistic Theory"
- 1972: "Studies in Semantics in Generative Grammar"
- 1975: "Reflections on the language"
- 1977: "Essays on Form and Interpretation"
- 1980: "Rules and representations"
- 1981: "Conferences on Government and Bookbinding: The Pisa Conferences".
- 1984: "Modular accesses to the study of the mind"
- 1986: "Barriers"
- 1986: "Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use"
- 1995: "The Minimalist Program"
About politics
- 1970: "The Government in the Future"
- 1984: "The Second Cold War"
- 1988: "The fifth freedom"
- 1987: "On Power and Ideology"
- 1990: "The Guardians of Freedom"
- 1992: "The fear of democracy"
- 1997: "The Global Village"
- 1997: "Class Struggle"
- 1997: "The new world order (and the old one)"
- 2000: "Acts of aggression"
- 2000: "Profit is what counts"
- 2001: "Perspectives on Power"
- 2001: "La Des-Education"
- 2002: "Propaganda and public opinion"
- 2003: "The fatal triangle"
- 2003: "The culture of terrorism"
- 2004: "Illusions of the Middle East"
- 2004: "Pirates and Emperors"
- 2007: “Failed States. The abuse of power and the attack on democracy "
- 2008: "Interventions"
- 2008: "On anarchism"
- 2008: "Lebanon, from within"
- 2010: "Hopes and realities"
- 2012: "Illusionists"
- 2013: "On Anarchism"
- 2015: "Because we say so"
Some of his political, linguistic and religious reflections
Chomsky's opinion, without going into stopping whether we agree with him or not, is good to know, as well as all the thinkers and philosophers who have dedicated so many years of their lives to reflection. Chomsky has it all: politics, linguistics and religion, and if not, read on some of his statements:
For most of the population, even in a country as rich as the US, wages have stagnated or fallen over the past 25 years, while hours and job insecurity have grown dramatically [… ] The world economy has declined in the same period of time (considerably) […] for a large part of the world's population, conditions are dire and often deteriorating, and more importantly, […] The correlation between economic growth and social welfare that has often occurred (for example, postwar or pre-liberalization) has been truncated.
Jesus himself, and most of the message of the Gospels, is a message of service to the poor, a critique of the rich and powerful, and a pacifist doctrine, and it stayed that way, that's how Christianity was ... until Constantine .: Constantine changed it, so the cross, which was the symbol of the persecution of someone who works for the poor, was put on the shield of the Roman Empire. It became the symbol of violence and oppression, which is more or less what the church has been up to the present ...
If you believe in free speech then you believe in free speech for points of view that you dislike. For example, Goebbels was in favor of the freedom of expression for the points of view that he shared, also Stalin. If you are in favor of freedom of expression, that means that you are in favor of freedom of expression precisely for the points of view that you do not share, otherwise, you would not be in favor of freedom of expression.
Fun facts
As a curious fact about the figure of Noam Chomsky we will tell you that both the jihadist terrorist Bin Laden like the previous president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, made "propaganda" about the essays of Noam Chomsky, assuring that such treatises had to be read to "understand" a little more his "policy" against the United States.
Good day.
Please, if you have any information on how to contact Noam Chomsky in this way, send it to my email.
I am working with Chomsky on my doctoral thesis.
Venezuela.
Thank you
A great connoisseur of these our times, since he himself has lived the atrosities of this world, consistent with what has been said and correct in all his comments, all people who can must know his work to be able to understand the voragimes of the »new» platform of life that according to the governments offer us, because they only offer it but the real thing is that we will never see it and less enjoy it, since they only think in terms of accelerating the reforms to be able to access more wealth for themselves and their families. . Pure menrçtiras for the people who are becoming poorer ... pure lies of the rulers who are useless and only serve the capitalists. starving town where most of us only win to survive and not live.
I hope to meet you soon.
greetings from Puebla; Mexico
YES, IN THE LITTLE I HAVE READ, I REALIZE THAT HE IS A VERY IMPORTANT CHARACTER, AS FOR LINGUISTICS, IT IS REFERRED TO, A MAN KNOWLEDGE OF THE ISSUES THAT HE HAS ADDRESSED THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE.
Brilliant master, an invitation to wake up from the social paradigm in which we are all inserted
It is impossible to describe in a few words the importance and influence of his contribution as a writer, thinker, linguist around the world ... A constant reference ...
In addition to his appreciable and remarkable political, philosophical and scientific position, what I value the most is his courage to express what he thinks from the mecca of capitalism.
An excellent writer, who has been considered "father of modern linguistics" for being the author of Generative Grammar (GG), a new model of language description, may God continue to give him more wisdom; and those who assimilate its philosophy, be it for the service, development and defense of humanity and ecology, and not to serve and abuse it ...
My admiration and respect for this lord of modern thinking Noam Chomsky.