A Study On The Development Of Chomsky's Linguistic Theory

The publication of Noam Chomsky's Syntactic Structures in 1957 marks the beginning of "Chomskyan Revolution", which has had a far-reaching impact on the field of linguistics. Chomsky has revealed the amazing complexity of human languages but at the same time has provided striking evidence that there is really only one language, and that it is innate. In the late 1950s, Chomsky put forth his Transformational Grammar (i.e. TG) in an innovative way when the structuralist's descriptive linguistics was reaching the height of its fame and prosperity. Generally, Chomsky's linguistic theory has undergone the five significant periods of Classical Theory, Standard Theory, Extended Standard Theory, Government and Binding Theory and Minimalist Programme, which are symptomatic of the evolution in Chomsky's thought.As a personal perspective, Chomsky's theory in the 1950s failed to draw the attention of the linguists in the field of linguistics. However, with the gradual improvement and crystallization of Chomsky's Universal Grammar from 1960s, Chomsky's linguistic theory came to be recognized as one of the main schools of linguistic field. And in the mid 1980s, after the proposal of Government and Binding Theory, the discussion of Chomskyan theory reached its peak. But just as Chomsky parted with the former dominant Bloomfieldian school in which Chomsky was trained and against which he reacted in due course, he himself also has some radical dissidents going their own way. In some sense, today's study of Chomsky's theory has entered into a stable though not so exciting period in which many problems are yet to be solved. His grammar model has become more abstract than before and thus more and more difficult for people to understand. Maybe this is the reason why the numbers of people studying Chomsky's theory is on the decline. Whatever the reason, it is a doubtless fact that Chomsky's linguistic theory has succeeded in becoming an influential and meaningful one whose power derives from its self-negation, self-modification and self-improvement.