Noam Chomsky: The father of modern linguistics

Noam Chomsky: The father of modern linguistics

Noam Chomsky is a US linguist and firebrand political activist who has influenced several other fields. He is widely known as “the father of modern linguistics,” and is also one of the founders of cognitive science. He has written more than 150 books on topics such as mass media, war, linguistic, and politics. He is also an outspoken critic of American foreign policy.

In 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention when he wrote an anti-war essay titled “The Responsibility of Intellectuals.” He was also arrested several times for his activism and had his name on President Richard Nixon’s Enemies List. He also became a part of the linguistic wars. After retiring from MIT, he has been a vocal political activist, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. Let’s learn more about his past life and work.

Past life and education

Noam Chomsky was born in 1928 in Philadelphia. He went to the independent, Deweyite Oak Lane Country Day School and Philadelphia Central High School. He excelled in his studies and joined several clubs and societies. He also attended Hebrew High School at Gratz College, where his father was a teacher.

Chomsky’s relatives that were a part of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union exposed him to socialism and far-left politics. He was very much influenced by his uncle and the Jewish leftists who often visited his newspaper stand to discuss current affairs. Chomsky wrote his first article at age 10 on the spread of fascism after the fall of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.

In 1945, he started pursuing his study at the University of Pennsylvania. There he studied philosophy, languages, and logic, and developed a primary interest in learning Arabic. He funded his undergraduate education by teaching Hebrew.

The road to MIT

Chomsky became friends with two linguists at MIT, Morris Hale, and Roman Jakobson. At MIT, he spent most of his time on a mechanical translation project and also taught a course on linguistics and philosophy.

In 1957, MIT offered him the position of associate professor. He also worked at Columbia University from 1957 to 1958. He published his first book on linguistics called Syntactic Structures, which opposed the dominant Harris Bloomfield trend in the field. He was also a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1958 to 1959.

Chomsky’s anti-war activism

Chomsky was involved in the protests against the US involvement in the Vietnam War in 1962. He spoke about the subject at small gatherings in churches and homes. His first essay along with other contributions was collected and published in 1969 as a part of his first political book titled American Power and the New Mandarins.

He was also a part of the left-wing activism and he refused to pay half his taxes, and also supported students who refused the draft. Chomsky gave several lectures to student activist groups and also ran undergraduate courses on politics at MIT.

In 1970, Chomsky was named as one of the “makers of the twentieth century” by the London Times. He was also voted the world’s leading public intellectual in The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll. New Statesman readers listed him among the world’s foremost heroes in 2006.

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