![]() My final goodbye to generativism happened in the late 1980s. And the theory has changed radically, also due to unusability and lots of counter-evidence that has been presented against it. I remember a colleague who said: “Oh, now the VP is no longer a ‘barrier'”, when Chomsky’s book came out. Also, I thought it was strange that when Chomsky changed his mind, the herd automatically followed. Already as a student, I was interested in non-(Indo-)European languages, especially Basque and Amerindian languages, and I could not see how they fit into a model based on English. I think there are several reasons why I did not become a generativist. PB: As you know, I got solid training in GG in Amsterdam where I studied linguistics, and several of my most admired teachers, later colleagues, were generativists. Peter, why didn’t you become a generati vist? Chomsky’s language theory is based on the language ability of the individual, and since I early on became interested in the relationship between language, psychology and the brain, GG was the natural choice for me. Sten Vikner showed me how GG could explain typological differences and similarities in the Germanic languages, and Steven Pinker showed me how GG could be used as an explanatory model for the relationship between language and cognition, including language acquisition, language comprehension and production, language pathology and evolution. ![]() KRC: First of all, I was fascinated by the formal precision that Noam Chomsky’s GG offered, compared to the many other theoretical approaches that I was introduced when I was a student of linguistics at Aarhus University. Ken, why and how did you become a generativist? Ken Ramshøj Christensen (KRC) and Peter Bakker (PB) interview each other about Chomsky and GG. Many years ago, Peter Bakker was thesis supervisor for Ken Ramshøj Christensen’s MA thesis, which was about GG and aphasia. Both are educated within the theory, but where Peter Bakker abandoned his ‘faith’ in the model several decades ago, Ken Ramshøj Christensen still works within Generative Grammar ( abbreviated below as GG). On the occasion of the event, Peter Bakker and Ken Ramshøj Christensen, both from Aarhus University, sat down to discuss the significance of Chomsky’s generative theory. ![]() At the age of 94, he is giv ing a lecture (online) at Aarhus University on February 10, 2023. ![]() Skinner, Jean Piaget, and other cognitive and social-learning theorists who emphasize the role of experience and general knowledge and abilities in language acquisition.Noam Chomsky’s influence on linguistics in the last half century is probably greater than that of any other linguist. This theoretical account of syntax acquisition contrasts sharply with the views of B. The LAD reflects Chomsky's underlying assumption that many aspects of language are universal (common to all languages and cultures) and constrained by innate core knowledge about language called Universal Grammar. ![]() The device is comprised of a finite set of dimensions along which languages vary, which are set at different levels for different languages on the basis of language exposure. This mechanism endows children with the capacity to derive the syntactic structure and rules of their native language rapidly and accurately from the impoverished input provided by adult language users. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a hypothetical brain mechanism that Noam Chomsky postulated to explain human acquisition of the syntactic structure of language. ![]()
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