Quotessence
Home / Authors / Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky Quotes

Linguist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsStatesWorldThinkingWarUnited StatesWayShouldUnited

Famous Noam Chomsky Quotes

“Some innate capacity - some part of the human genetic endowment - enters into language acquisition. That much is uncontroversial among those who believe that humans are part of the natural world. If it were not true, would be a miracle that my granddaughter reflexively identified some elements of the blooming buzzing confusion as language-related and went on to acquire capacities of the kind that you and I are now exercising, while her pet kitten (chimp, songbird, bee...), presented with exactly the same data, could not take the first step, let alone the later ones.”

IfsWorldFirstsBelieveHumansKindWould BeLanguageNaturalStepsExerciseElementsCapacityMiracleConfusionDataRelatedAcquirePetFirst StepsBeesInnateNatural WorldAcquisitionKittenEndowmentBloomingGranddaughterLanguage AcquisitionSongbirds
Author:Noam Chomsky
Create image

“I did not say that language as a completed system emerged in an individual in an instant. But I cannot think of a coherent alternative to the idea that mutations take place in individuals, not communities, so that whatever rewiring of the brain yielded the apparently unique properties of language, specifically recursive generation of hierarchically structured expressions, would therefore have taken place in an individual, and only later been used among individuals who had inherited this capacity.”

ThinkingIdeasUsedIndividualLanguageCommunityBrainTakenGenerationsExpressionUniqueCapacityPropertyAlternativesInstantMutation
Author:Noam Chomsky
Create image

“Language would have evolved first as an internal object, a kind of "language of thought" (LOT), with externalisation (hence communication) an ancillary process. I can't review here the strong and growing evidence to support this conclusion, but I have elsewhere. There are ample reasons why having a LOT would confer selectional advantage: the person so endowed could plan, interpret, reflect, etc., in ways denied to others.”

WayFirstsKindPersonsI CanReasonLanguageStrongProcessSupportGrowingPlansObjectsCommunicationEvidenceAdvantageConclusionReason WhyEtcInternalsReviewsDeniedElsewhere
Author:Noam Chomsky
Create image

“I haven't seen any claim that Piraha lacks recursion, that is, that there are a finite number of sentences or sentence frames. If that's so, it would mean that the speakers of this language aren't making use of a capacity that they surely have, a normal situation; plenty of people throughout history would drown if they fall into water.”

PeopleIfsMeanUseFallLanguageWaterNumbersSituationHavensNormalCapacityClaimsSentencesPlentySpeakersFiniteRecursionFinite Number
Author:Noam Chomsky
Create image

“No one seriously doubts that if Piraha children are brought up in Boston they'll be speaking Boston English, that is, that the capacities are present, unlike other animals, as far as is known. There's no challenge to the theory - not mine, but everyone's - that the human language faculty provides the means for generation of an infinite array of structured expressions.”

IfsHumansMeanChildrenLanguageChallengesAnimalKnownDoubtGenerationsMinesExpressionTheoryCapacityInfiniteFacultyBostonHuman Language
Author:Noam Chomsky
Create image

“Whenever there is injustice, oppression, aggression, violence, it's standard for it to be supported by those we now call "intellectuals," but typically not by all; there is typically a fringe of dissidents. With very rare exceptions - in fact, it's hard to think of any - they suffer in one or another way; how depends on the nature of the society.”

ThinkingWayHardFactsSufferingViolenceDependsStandardsInjusticeOppressionExceptionAggressionAnother WayFringeDissidents
Author:Noam Chomsky
Create image