Current Issues in Linguistic Theory pdf 诺姆·乔姆斯基
Chomsky places emphasis on the capacity of human languages to create new sentences in an infinite manner. To him, this creativity is an essential characteristic of languages in general. Chomsky boldly proclaims that this creativity is the "central fact to which any significant linguistic theory must address itself". He adds that any "theory of language that neglects this 'creative' aspect is of only marginal interest".Chomsky then calls the existing structuralist linguistic theory of his time a "taxonomic" enterprise which limited itself within a narrow scope to become an "inventory of elements", not an inventory of underlying rules. In doing so, this "far too oversimplified" linguistic model "seriously underestimates the richness of structure of language and the generative processes that underlie it". After dismissing the existing theories, Chomsky attempts to show that his newly invented "transformational generative grammar" model is "much closer to the truth".