Show:
A Day In The Life
Friend or Foe?
Take It Away, Chom!
The Scientific Method
Extra, Extra!
100
1928
In what year was Noam Chomsky was born?
100
Noam Chomsky's main rival that believed more in surface structure rather than deep structure in linguistic studies.
Who is Leonard Bloomfield?
100
The subconscious knowledge that one has of their own language, otherwise known as deep structure or linguistic competence.
What did Noam Chomsky stress to be of the utmost importance during his early years at a linguistic expert?
100
Children, since their language acquisition skills were the easiest to track.
What demographic or group did Chomsky base almost all of his findings off of?
100
His radical political views. Chomsky was a "libertarian socialist", which was highly criticized at the time.
What is another trait that Chomsky is well known for?
200
1957
In what year did Chomsky begin to revolutionize (and perhaps scandalize) the field of linguistics?
200
The method of describing and classifying sounds and morphemes in terms of their functions in language.
What method of linguistics was Leonard Bloomfield known for?
200
The mentalist approach, which focuses on the subconscious knowledge that one has of language, rather than a set of strict learned linguistic rules.
What is the approach that Chomsky presented which challanged the Bloomfieldian school of theory relating to how language is acquired?
200
Naturalistic, or a naturalism approach. Chomsky believed that nature had equipped all children with the ability to learn and acquire language, rather than language being acquired through a strict set of rules.
What type of theory is most often associated with Chomsky's views on language?
200
The 9/11 terrorist attacks.
What major American event did Chomsky surprisingly speak out against, amidst a storm of controversy?
300
Syntactic Structures, which intertwined logic and mathematics to provide a new school of thought in the world of linguistics.
What is the title of the iconic book that Chomsky published which changed the face of linguistics forever?
300
The actual utterances one speaks that can later be decoded and broken down for syntactic analysis.
What is surface structure?
300
Creativity, as he believed that most of the utterances that the human species creates are completely novel, otherwise there would be no point to read, write, or converse at all.
What was the main factor in Chomsky's view of language acquisition and expansion?
300
Verbal Behavior
What is the title of the 1957 book by B.F. Skinner which stated that language is learned through rules rather than an innate subconscious knowledge.
300
Richard Nixon included Chomsky on his enemies list, due in part of Chomsky's opposition of the draft.
Which American president included Chomsky on his list of enemies?
400
The Principles and Parameters theory, which accounts for that fact that the rules ingrained in one's mind regarding language can be applied to all languages universally.
What is the theory that Chomsky introduced to the world that even though languages themselves vary, all languages have specific rules and boundaries to them?
400
The belief that language is learned by mimicry, and is simply a well-defined set of rules used to form grammatical utterances.
What is the mechanistic approach?
400
The FOX2P gene, which causes issues with the acquisition process of languages if defective.
What is the evolutionary "language learning device" that Chomsky deeply believed in?
400
The environment. For Skinner, children only learn a language by repeating those that they hear in their environment. For Chomsky, as long as there were some other human beings around to speak any language, the children's natural abilities would hone in and begin acquiring that language subconsciously.
What is one common trait that both B. F. Skinner and Noam Chomsky acknowledged plays an important part in linguistics?
400
The Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award
What is the name of the prestigious award that Chomsky earned from the American Psychological Association?
500
The minimalism theory, or minimalist program. This theory counteracts some of Chomsky's previous work, as it eliminates the need for deep and surface structures, and his previous visions for syntax within linguistics.
What is Chomsky's theory which states that there is only one grammatical system for all languages?
500
Productivity, or the fact that one learning a new language can produce utterances that they have never produced before with only a limited amount of words and known sounds in their vocabulary.
What is the main trait of linguistics that the Bloomfieldian school of theory cannot account for?
500
Universal Grammer
What is the term that is used to describe how children can take their general knowledge of linguistic rules and apply them to their own specific language?
500
The LAD allows children to use transformational grammar, which means the process of translating underlying meaning into speech.
What does the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) enable children to do in linguistics?
500
Quoted him. To this day, Chomsky remains the most quoted living person in the world.
What have people done with Chomsky's work more than any other living human being?