For those who still think that Noam Chomsky is a "great thinker," welcome to reality. Chomsky was a militant anarchist metaphorical bomb—thrower long before he (accidentally) became a famous linguist. Chomsky was "discovered" long before he completed his long and unreadable dissertation at MIT. Chomsky's contribution to his field of expertise, such as it was, was to try to convert human language to mathematics; but that turned out to be a Platonic fantasy that doesn't work. It just makes linguists feel better about themselves. Since the Sixties Chomsky has published theory after theory. After five decades of "generative grammar," "transformational grammar," "government and binding grammar," and today "minimalist grammar," Chomsky's ambitious project to turn human language into elegant mathematics has become tinier and tinier. When Chomsky leaves the scene, it will all go "pop!" and disappear, leaving not a wrack behind. Many scholars of language believe that Chomsky...(Read Full Post)