Noam Chomsky is Professor of Linguistics Emeritus at MIT and Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona. He not only counts as among the most influential linguists of all time, but he has played a major role in the development of twentieth and twenty-first century philosophy, cognitive science, and political theory. Noam and Robinson talk about some of the major topics in modern linguistics, ranging from generative and universal grammar to innateness hypotheses and the current limitations of large language models for studying human linguistic faculties. There are also philosophical dimensions to the conversation, as Noam touches on his time with Nelson Goodman, Hilary Putnam, and W. V. O. Quine, while other concerns—such as the indeterminacy of reference and the relationship between thought and language—recur throughout the discussion. 

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:27 Introduction

8:32 Noam’s Entry into Linguistics 

11:03 Ferdinand de Saussure and Twentieth Century Linguistics

23:04 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

26:00 Thoughts on Language and Behaviorism

35:24 Innateness Hypotheses in Linguistics

42:00 Innateness and Universal Grammar

46:02 Limitations of Large Language Models

48:42 Impossible Languages and What Linguists Study

1:00:10 Historical Shifts in Linguistics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.