Chomsky: Obsolete?

[Dan I. Slobin]

I can't imagine this exercise, Peter.  Chomsky was critically 
important in posing some of the most important, and still current 
questions:  How does the child arrive at a grammar with limited 
information about grammar provided in the input?  Is their an 
innately specified device for this task?  What are the differences 
between knowledge and skill?  How can we formally represent the 
underlying structures of language?  Is grammar autonomous?  Are there 
language universals, and are they biologically based?  Etc. etc.

My disappointment over the years was with the narrowness of the 
answers, the rigidity and psychological implausibility of the various 
formalisms, and an ideological disregard of what the child can learn 
from the speech+situation world in which it lives and grows--that is, 
disregard of the roles of semantics and pragmatics and their 
cognitive, biological bases, as well as disregard of the roles of 
frequency, memory, and processing as necessary components of a model 
of language acquisition.  In fact, when I invited Chomsky to 
contribute a chapter on language development to my early volume, The 
Ontogenesis of Grammar (1971), he replied--and this was in 1966--that 
he had no idea about how or why language development occurred.  He 
said it was a puzzle that acquisition was not instantaneous, and he 
had nothing to say about development.  (All of this led me to write a 
paper, way back in 1988, "Confessions of a wayward Chomskyan.")

Yes, I reiterate, I am still driven by the questions that he posed a 
half-century ago--though not by his current position.

Dan

At 11:47 AM 10/11/2007, Gordon, Peter wrote:
>I think it would be an interesting exercise if Robin (and other 
>Anti-Chomskians) could give us a sense of how child language might 
>have developed without Chomsky and why it would have benefited from 
>his absence.
>
>Peter Gordon
>
>
>Peter Gordon, Associate Professor
>525 W 120th St. Box 180
>Biobehavioral Sciences Department
>Teachers College, Columbia University
>New York, NY 10027
>Office Phone: (212) 678-8162
>FAX: (212) 678-8233
>Web Page: www.tc.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=pg328
>
>----------
>From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Anat Ninio
>Sent: Thu 10/11/2007 6:29 AM
>To: Jeff MacSwan
>Cc: Anat Ninio; r.n.campbell; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
>Subject: Re: Chomsky: Obsolete?
>
>Well, generativism hasn't been the same since Chomsky turned his theory
>into a sub-type of Dependency Grammar! My enthusiasm for highly-abstract
>syntax as a framework for developmental theory has always been very
>restricted, so it's good news that Chomsky doesn't work that way any more.
>
>Anat Ninio
>
>Jeff MacSwan wrote:
> > It's not a surprise that those who are committed to frameworks which
> > disavow generativist work would gleefully await the day when the most
> > influential figure, who also created the field, is no longer "relevant."
> >
> > But Chomsky's work actually continues to grow in significance and
> > influence, precisely due to its relevance not only to linguistics
> > generally, but also to the social sciences, the cognitive sciences,
> > computer science and mathematics, and philosophy.
> >
> > While one can do interesting and important linguistic research that does
> > not heavily rely on Chomsky's own specific contributions to linguistic
> > theory, the idea that his work has generally lost relevance or
> > significance reflects a lack of acquaintance with the current
> > linguistics literature.
> >
> > Jeff MacSwan
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
> > 
> [<mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org>mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] 
> On Behalf Of Anat Ninio
> > Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:56 AM
> > To: r.n.campbell
> > Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
> > Subject: Re: Chomsky: Obsolete?
> >
> > Hi Robin,
> >
> > Chomsky actually changed his mind about what syntax is, so maybe he's
> > now a more relevant figure than before?
> >
> > Anat Ninio
> >
> >
> >
> > r.n.campbell wrote:
> >
> >>> *Competence vs. Performance: A False Distinction?*
> >>>
> >> A broader topic (which includes this one and is equally worth
> >> discussing) is that Noam Chomsky and all his works are also obsolete.
> >> For me, it will be a happy day when this is so.
> >> --
> >>
> >> Dr Robin N Campbell
> >> Dept of Psychology
> >> University of Stirling
> >> STIRLING FK9 4LA
> >> Scotland, UK
> >>
> >> telephone: 01786-467649  facsimile: 01786-467641
> >> email: r.n.campbell at stir.ac.uk
> >> Website: 
> <http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/rcampbell/index.php>http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/rcampbell/index.php
> >>
> >> --
> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dan I. Slobin, Professor of the Graduate School
Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Linguistics

Department of Psychology        email: slobin at berkeley.edu
3210 Tolman #1650                 phone (Dept):  1-510-642-5292
University of California             phone (home): 1-510-848-1769
Berkeley, CA 94720-1650         fax: 1-510-642-5293
USA                                      http://ihd.berkeley.edu/slobin.htm
 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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