American writer, a linguist, philosopher and political activist. A Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1955, he is the founder of transformational-generative grammar. In addition to his revolutionary work in the field of modern linguistics, he was an important political figure who advocated a combination of anarchism and socialism. Chomsky’s most important publications, in addition to his first book “Syntactic Structures,” 1957, include “Aspects on the Theory of Syntax,” 1965, “Peace in the Middle East,” 1974, “The Fateful Triangle,” 1983, and “The Minimalist Program,” 1995.
The son of William Chomsky, a Hebrew scholar who emigrated from Russia, Avram received his early education at the Oak Lane Country Day School in Philadelphia. After graduating from Central High School, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania where he studied linguistics, mathematics and philosophy. While still a graduate student, he was appointed a junior fellow at Harvard University, 1951-55. He earned his Ph.D. in linguistics in 1955 and was immediately offered a faculty position at MIT, teaching French and German. In 1976, he became MIT’s Institute Professor of Linguistics.
Chomsky’s other main interest was politics, and during the 1960s, he temporarily scaled back his linguistics work in order to spend more time writing, primarily focusing his attention on the policies of the United States government in Southeast Asia. Between 1965 and 1973, he was a major figure in the resistance movement against U.S. foreign policy, even traveling to North Vietnam just prior to the invasion of Cambodia. His arguments against American involvement in Vietnam were outlined in a book of essays called “American Power and the New Mandarins,” 1967.
Chomsky married Carol Schatz on 12/24/1949; they had three children.
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