Grammar and Mind

Abstract

There can be little doubt about the prestige that attached to Chomsky’s formal approach to linguistics, yet this alone is insufficient to account for the sustained impact of his work. Reinforcing that prestige have been Chomsky’s claims that his study of language was at the same time a contribution to the study of mind. His psychological speculations have exerted an enormous influence not only in linguistics, but also in psychology and philosophy, and they account, it seems to us, very largely for his continuing reputation. In this chapter we set out to show that the psychological gloss that Chomsky added to his deductively formulated mode of explanation shares, in spite of its attractions for those outside the field, the weaknesses and limitations of his technical work.

… we do not really learn language; rather, grammar grows in the mind.

Noam Chomsky