Abstract and Keywords

This sketch attempts to convey the magnitude of Chomsky’s contribution to linguistics

by comparing his initial formulation of generative grammar with his structuralist
predecessors’ approach to syntax and then comparing that formulation to the current
perspective. In the intervening six decades, Chomsky: (a) constructed a formal theory of
grammar and explored its foundations; (b) developed a cognitive/epistemological
interpretation of the theory, leading to the biolinguistic perspective; (c) contributed
major proposals for constraints on grammars resulting in a significant reduction in and
simplification of the formal grammatical machinery; and (d) re-evaluated the theory of
grammar in terms of language design, raising the possibility of empirical proposals
about the language faculty as a biological entity with properties of economy, simplicity,
and efficient computation. In redefining the science of language (a–d), Chomsky has
wrought a revolution without precedent in the history of linguistics.

Keywords: transformational generative grammar, conditions on rules and

representations, Principles and Parameters framework, I-language, Minimalist Program