英語名人堂：艾弗拉姆·諾姆·喬姆斯基

艾弗拉姆·諾姆·喬姆斯基(Avram Noam Chomsky，1928年12月7日—)，美國哲學家。是麻省理工學院語言學的榮譽退休教授。喬姆斯基的《生成語法》被認為是20世紀理論語言學研究上最偉大的貢獻。

Noam Chomsky is an American author, lecturer, linguist, philosopher, and politicalcommentator. He is a top professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His ideas completely changed teachers’ understanding of how we learn languages. Chomsky is well known for his prolific research and publications. He is cited as a source more often than any other living person.

Chomsky was born in 1928 in Pennsylvania, USA. The young Noam got into writing and politics at a very early age. When he was 10, he wrote an essay on the threat of fascism during the Spanish Civil War. Needless to say, he was a gifted student and he followed current events very closely. He graduated with an MA in philosophy and linguistics.

Chomsky received his Ph.D. in linguistics in 1955. His thesis helped shape today’s understanding of what language is and how we all learn it so naturally. He joined the teaching staff of MIT in 1955 and has remained there to this day. Chomsky has spent decades there researching and writing on language, psychology and politics and has influenced hundreds of researchers and academics.

Chomsky is a fierce critic of US foreign policy and continually questions the misuse of American power. He has strongly opposed all wars from Vietnam to Iraq. He is largely shunned by the media in the United States for being unpatriotic and has received death threats. However, he is in high demand for his ideas and speeches around the world.