Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is know as “the father of modern linguistics”. Chomsky’s book Syntactic Structures is “really the birth of modern linguistics as a science of language.”
Books by Noam Chomsky
“Chomsky’s linguistics work is technical, and where it’s not technical, it’s highly philosophical. I chose On Nature and Language because it’s more modern. It’s quite speculative and a bit rhetorical, it must be said. I like it because it poses, very clearly, a general question. Chomsky focuses on the cognitive-psychological side of linguistics and has always said that language has a biological part to it, that’s it part of our being as humans and other animals don’t have it.” Read more...
David Adger, Linguist
“The essence of the book has these brilliant ideas of deep structure. Every sentence in every language starts off at one level in which the literal meaning is represented, and then gets transformed by operations at that basic phrase-structure.” Read more...
The best books on Language and Thought
Daniel L. Everett, Linguist
“This book was really the birth of modern linguistics as a science of language. It’s about grammatical structure, rather than meaning or logic. What is important for me is that this book brought another piece of the puzzle to the table. By giving us the grammatical part, Chomsky gave us what we need to combine with the meaning part in order to have a complete theories of spoken languages.” Read more...
The best books on The Philosophy of Language
Scott Soames, Philosopher
Interviews where books by Noam Chomsky were recommended
The best books on The Philosophy of Language, recommended by Scott Soames
When you study the philosophy of language, you study the languages of logic, mathematics, and science, and not just English, French, and German. Philosopher Scott Soames picks the best books on the philosophy of language.
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1
Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech
by Edward Sapir -
2
Language In Relation To A Unified Theory Of The Structure Of Human Behaviour
by Kenneth Pike -
3
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
by Noam Chomsky -
4
On Understanding Grammar
by Talmy Givón -
5
Making It Explicit: Reasoning, Representing & Discursive Commitment
by Robert Brandom
The best books on Language and Thought, recommended by Daniel L. Everett
The best books on Language and Thought, recommended by Daniel L. Everett
The linguist argues that all language has a basis in culture and explains how Chomsky is like Freud: crucial, but crucially wrong. He chooses five of the best books on linguistics.
The best books on Linguistics, recommended by David Adger
Which linguistics books give a good sense of what the field is about? David Adger, Professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London and the current president of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, recommends some of his own favourite books on the science of language, including a sci-fi novel.
Language and Thought