Noam Chomsky's first book on syntactic structures is one of the first serious attempts on the part of a linguist to construct within the tradition of scientific theory-construction a comprehensive theory of language which may be understood in the same sense that a chemical, biological theory is understood by experts in those fields. It is not a mere reorganization of the data into a new kind of library catalogue, nor another specualtive philosophy about the nature of man and language, but rather a rigorus explication of our intuitions about our language in terms of an overt axiom system, the theorems derivable from it, explicit results which may be compared with new data and other intuitions, all based plainly on an overt theory of the internal structure of languages; and it may well provide an opportunity for the application of explicity measures of simplicity to decide preference of one form over another form of grammar.
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"It has been the single most inspiring book on linguistics in my whole career." -- HenkvanRiemsdijk
About the Author
Noam Chomsky is Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. David W. Lightfoot is Professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.
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Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. A member of the American Academy of Science, he has published widely in both linguistics and current affairs. His books include At War with Asia, Towards a New Cold War, Fateful Triangle: The U. S., Israel and the Palestinians, Necessary Illusions, Hegemony or Survival, Deterring Democracy, Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy and Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In 1993,I was fortunate to inherit this book from my father who used it during his undergrad studies at Columbia University in the 1960s.It was as relevant to my studies of Foreign Language and Lit as it was to my music major dad. It was a terrible blow when it was stolen with my car some ten years later,and indeed I never could bring myself to tell my dad that our precious Chomsky collection was in my trunk. So I was actually tearful when I found it available on Amazon.
One must always stand in awe of the fact that this groundbreaking tome was Chomsky's Bachelor thesis. It is intimidating to me and anyone who gets past the first chapter that a college senior produced this astounding labor.He knows his subject and he knows it well.My entire understanding of syntax,surface structure and deep structure of language began from this work.It made the difference in my study of language and helped me grow from instinctive,intuitive knowledge to reasoned thoughtful understanding of how we communicate with our fellow humans.
One must always stand in awe of the fact that this groundbreaking tome was Chomsky's Bachelor thesis. It is intimidating to me and anyone who gets past the first chapter that a college senior produced this astounding labor.He knows his subject and he knows it well.My entire understanding of syntax,surface structure and deep structure of language began from this work.It made the difference in my study of language and helped me grow from instinctive,intuitive knowledge to reasoned thoughtful understanding of how we communicate with our fellow humans.
17 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By f s
Format:Paperback
Although Chomsky later changed his ideas towards linguistics in'Aspects of the Theory of Syntax', but this book is essential in understanding his relation to the Bloomfildean school and is essential for understanding 20'th century linguistics.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Whether you love him, hate him or haven't the first clue what he's about, it's hard to deny that Noam Chomsky is *the* father of modern formal linguistics. This book is still considered a "gold standard" even after nearly 60 years. If you have any interest in studying or working on formal or computational linguistics, this realtively brief monograph is essential reading.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bloomfield and Quine Commentary
Chomsky's assertion of the creativity of sentence production derives, in part, (one must believe) from Emil Post's work in symbol production: given a finite vocabulary and a finite... Read more
Published on September 27, 2006 by Robert N. Britcher
4.0 out of 5 stars
Right, Back On The Corner
Chomsky's *Syntactic Structures* is legendary today for its being the founding document in the field of generative grammar; but this is to say that the many theses of this book are... Read more
Published on April 3, 2004 by Jeffrey Rubard
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 2
books:
100
books
cite this book:
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- The Minimalist Program (Current Studies in Linguistics) by Noam Chomsky in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- Binding Theory (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) by Daniel Büring in Front Matter
- Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics by John Lyons on 16 pages
- Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent by Robert F. Barsky on 8 pages
- Semantic Structures (Current Studies in Linguistics) by Ray S. Jackendoff on 4 pages
- Language, Frogs and Savants: More Linguistic Problems, Puzzles and Polemics by Neil Smith on 4 pages
- Research in Basic Writing: A Bibliographic Sourcebook by Martin Jacobi on page 78, page 81, and page 90
See all 100 books citing this book
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