Foreword by Neil Smith

Abstract

Chomsky's position on the world intellectual scene is unique. He was the leading figure in the “cognitive revolution” of the 1950s and 1960s, and he has dominated the field of linguistics ever since. His theory of generative grammar, in a number of different forms, has been a guide and inspiration for many linguists around the world and the point of comparison for almost everyone. You may not agree with Chomsky's work, but it would be both short-sighted and unscholarly to ignore it. Chomsky graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1949, with an undergraduate dissertation about Modern Hebrew, that was later revised and extended as his master's thesis. However embryonic, that work inaugurated modern generative grammar. The issues he touched on then have burgeoned to define a field of inquiry to which he is still contributing fifty years later, and which is in large part the product of his genius. Yet this intellectual odyssey has taken only half his time. The other half has been devoted to political activism, exposing the perceived lies of Government and the hidden agenda of the corporate establishment. This has involved him in giving seemingly countless lectures around the world, and has resulted in the production of about fifty books, hundreds of articles and thousands of letters. There may be little connection between the strands of his work, but his fame and in part his influence are the joint product of both.