Philosophy of Being and Knowledge

Philosophy of Language

Generativism of Chomsky

In the mid-20th century, a novel direction in linguistic philosophy emerged, inaugurated by the American linguist of Jewish descent, whose parents had migrated from Ukraine, Avram Noam Chomsky (b. 1928). His views are referred to as generativism or generative grammar, deriving from the Latin word "generare" (to produce). Chomsky's central thesis posits that language is an innate faculty of the human mind. Humans are born with the capacity for speech, rather than acquiring it from their surroundings. Chomsky illustrated this with the example of children: while the process of language acquisition is incredibly complex, children master the skill of speaking significantly faster and more effortlessly than other, simpler abilities. From this, Chomsky inferred that children do not truly learn the foundations of language but are born with them. It is not all aspects of language that are innate, but only grammar. Chomsky argues that it is appropriate to speak of a universal grammar inherent to all people from birth. This grammar is not tied to any specific language. Universal grammar can be likened to the fundamental principles of mathematics: the Pythagorean theorem applies to triangles of any size. Similarly, universal grammar applies to all languages. Chomsky exerted considerable effort to delineate the principles of a grammar universal to all languages. In the process of learning, people merely overlay additional linguistic components—such as vocabulary, phonetics, and so forth—onto the innate universal grammar.

The concept of universal grammar has had a profound impact on various fields of inquiry, including computer programming and music. In these domains, there has been a keen interest in discovering universal principles upon which specialized languages could be based, independent of any particular linguistic context.

Chomsky introduced a new theme into the discourse of linguistic philosophy: the innateness of the foundations of language. After Chomsky, it became impossible to refute the innate elements of language, but the question of the extent to which language is innate versus constructed by society continues to engage researchers. Chomsky's great achievement is his complete rejection of the evolution of the foundations of language. If universal grammar is constant across all times and languages, this implies that it does not evolve, though the elements superimposed upon it may change.