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Noam Chomsky and Linguistics

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Chomsky and language evolution

Definition

The impact of Noam Chomsky on the field of linguistics, particularly the evolution of language.

Introduction

Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is one of the most influential contemporary thinkers. His huge impact surpasses linguistics to include psychology, philosophy, or computer science, among other fields. The advent of Chomsky’s generative grammar in the second half of the twentieth century challenged the traditional view that considered language to be a purely cultural trait deriving from our great intelligence and unlimited learning capacities, by claiming that language is an innate trait, part of the human biological endowment.

It would be hard to provide an overall presentation of Chomsky’s linguistic work, for it has been crucial in many topics: nativism, language and mind, universal grammar, the poverty of the stimulus, language acquisition, language structure, etc. All of these topics have been widely discussed and are...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philology, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Avda. Castelao s/n, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Víctor M. Longa

Authors
  1. Víctor M. Longa
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Correspondence to Víctor M. Longa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Division of Psychology, School of Social and Health Sciences, Abertay University, DD1 1HG, Dundee, UK

    Christopher D. Watkins

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Longa, V.M. (2017). Noam Chomsky and Linguistics. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3621-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3621-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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