The Cognition Project Generating Grammars: Noam Chomsky
Feb 19, 2026
Noam Chomsky, renowned linguist and cognitive scientist who pioneered generative grammar. He discusses generative grammar and computation, the limits of data-only approaches, structural versus linear relations in language, poverty of the stimulus and innateness, and connections between linguistic puzzles and broader cognitive science questions.
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Early Undergraduate Experience With Harris
- As an undergraduate, Chomsky critiqued structuralist assignments and proofread Zellig Harris's work at 17.
- He experimented with Hebrew and found data-organization methods inadequate, prompting generative approaches.
Language As A Generative Computational System
- Generative grammar frames language as a finite system that produces infinite structured expressions.
- Noam Chomsky says computation theory made it possible to model language as rule-based generation.
Structure Beats Linear Proximity
- Structural rather than linear relations guide many syntactic operations, revealing deep internal computations.
- Chomsky highlights puzzles like which element a question targets that show children use structure, not proximity.
