Who is Chomsky? Describe Chomsky’s contribution to Linguistics. / Competence and Performance

Answer:

Avram Noam Chomsky is one of the most influential scholars of the 20th century. He is considered as the father of modern linguistics. He has proved himself in multiple fields like linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science, logician, political criticism, human rights activities, social criticism, and so on. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 7, 1928. He is a special professor at MIT and a retired professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.

His Contributions:

Chomsky has written more than 100 books on linguistics, politics, war, human rights, and mass media. His major contribution to Transformational Generative Grammar. He has influenced so many theories and ideas which made him very popular. They are:

  • Transformational Generative Grammar (TG)
  • Competence and performance
  • The Innate Theory also known as – / Nativist Theory / Rationalist Theory / Mentalist Theory
  • Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
  • Universal Grammar (UG)

TG: Chomsky talked about Transformational Generative Grammar (TG), also known as TGG. In his books “Syntactical Structure” (1957) and “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax” (1964), he said that a lot of language knowledge is already inside us from birth. This helps kids learn their native language easily by just picking up certain unique things about it. This built-in knowledge is called “Universal Grammar.” The proof of this theory can be traced from how quickly children learn their own language when they’re young.

Competence and Performance: Chomsky introduced the concepts of ‘competence’ and ‘performance’ to distinguish between a speaker’s linguistic knowledge and their real-world language use. Competence refers to the internalized understanding of language rules, while performance involves applying this knowledge in everyday situations. In the book Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Chomsky distinguished these two terms. Later he termed these two elements as ‘I-language’ which stands for internalized language, and ‘E-language’ which is externalized language respectively.

Innate Theory: Another popular theory developed by Chomsky is the ‘Innate Theory’. It is also known as ‘Innatist Theory’, ‘Nativist Theory’, ‘Rationalist Theory’, and ‘Mentalist Theory’ of language acquisition. This theory is a reaction to the Behaviorist Theory proposed by B.F. Skinner. From Chomsky’s perspective, language is not a set of habits, but it is ruled-governed. 

LAD:  LAD, which stands for “Language Acquisition Device,” is a big idea from Chomsky. It means picking up your first language is stronger than learning a second language. Like when we naturally learn our native language, it sticks with us better. Learning is when we actively understand something new, while acquisition is more like absorbing without thinking. Chomsky believes that every baby is born with an LAD in their brain.

UG:  Chomsky talked about ‘Universal Grammar’. This is like a basic structure in our minds for understanding language. It doesn’t mean all languages are the same, just that our minds are built to learn language naturally. Universal Grammar gives us common building blocks used in all languages. That is why a child can learn its native language without learning anything. Chomsky identified these rules as ‘language universals’. The innate grammar rules that a child discovers are termed ‘core grammar’ and the rules which are not included in UG are known as ‘peripheral grammar’. 

To sum up, Chomsky brought lots of new ideas to linguistics that made the study of language much better. That’s why people call him the “Father of Modern Linguistics.” So, his contribution to linguistics is highly influential in the modern era.