Noam Chomskys work changed everything. To understand why Noam Chomskys famous works caused such a change in the way people think we have to look at his big argument against B.F. Skinner.
In 1957 the famous behaviorist B.F. Skinner wrote a book called *Verbal Behavior*. In this book B.F. Skinner said that language is a habit that we learn by doing things over and over again and getting rewards. Two years later in 1959 Noam Chomsky wrote a review of *Verbal Behavior* that completely changed the way people think about language and the mind.
Here is how Noam Chomsky used his ideas to show that B.F. Skinners behaviorist model is not correct with some examples:
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### 1. The Argument Against "Stimulus and Response"
* **B.F. Skinners idea:** He said that when we talk it is like a reaction to something that happens outside of us. If you see a painting the painting makes you say, *"Wow that's beautiful!"*
* **Noam Chomskys response:** Noam Chomsky said that people are not like machines that just react to things. If ten people look at the painting they will all say different things. One person might say, *"It's too expensive "* another person might say, *"The colors remind me of my childhood "* and another person might just say, *"Yuck!"*
* **Example:** Noam Chomsky showed that when people talk it is because of what's going on inside their minds not just because of what is happening outside.
### 2. The "Poverty of the Stimulus" vs. Conditioning
* **B.F. Skinners idea:** He said that children learn language because their parents help them and reward them when they say things correctly.
* **Noam Chomskys response:** Noam Chomsky said that the language children hear at home is not perfect. It has mistakes and incomplete sentences. Also parents usually do not correct their childrens grammar.
* **Example:** If a child says, *"Mamma I came home early!"* the mother will. Say, *"Yes you did!"*. B.F. Skinners idea would say that the mother is rewarding the child for saying something.. The child will learn to say it correctly on their own as they hear more language.
### 3. Linguistic Creativity vs. Imitation
* **B.F. Skinners idea:** He said that children learn language by copying what they hear.
* **Noam Chomskys response:** Noam Chomsky said that people are able to create sentences that they have never heard before. We do not just repeat what we have heard.
* **Example:** Consider the sentence: *"The purple alligator rode a neon unicycle through the grocery store."* You have probably never heard this sentence before. You can understand what it means. Noam Chomsky said that B.F. Skinners idea cannot explain how we can understand sentences like this one.
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### Summary Table: The Theoretical Clash
| The Battleground | B.F. Skinners Behaviorism
| Noam Chomskys Nativism
| --- | --- | --- |
| **How language is viewed** | A habit or behavior.
| A complex mental cognitive system.
|
| **The Childs Brain** | A *Tabula Rasa* (blank slate) to be written on by the environment.
| Genetically pre-programmed with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
|
*How grammar happens** | By repeating sentences that were previously rewarded.
| By applying internal Universal Grammar rules to create sentences.
By showing that our minds have their own rules for understanding language Noam Chomsky changed the way people think about language and the mind. Noam Chomskys work ended the way of thinking about the mind and started the modern study of cognitive science. Noam Chomskys ideas, about language are still important today.
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