05 chonisky's "Classic Period"

Chomsky's "Classic Period"

In his 1993 history of linguistics, P. H. Matthews characterizes the early-to-mid1960s as "Chomsky's classic period," a time of enormous productivity (see Grammatical Theory). In 1962, Chomsky gave a paper at the Ninth International Congress of Linguists entitled "The Logical Basis of Linguistic Theory," which outlined an approach to language known as transformational generative grammar. The plenary speaker for this congress - who was, in a sense, supposed to represent American linguistics - was to have been Zellig Harris, but Harris delayed deciding whether to accept the invitation, and finally turned it down shortly before the congress was scheduled to take place. Three of the congress organizers, Morris Halle, Roman Jakobson, and William Locke (all mit linguists), convinced Chomsky to replace Harris. "Chomsky, never an avid conference goer, agreed, though his entire contact with the meeting was limited to the drive into Cambridge the morning of his presentation, staying for a late afternoon reception, and driving back that evening" (Anderson et al.

692).

Chomsky was suddenly thrust into the position of being "de facto spokesperson for American linguistics" (Anderson et al. 692). He did not disappoint; he gave a paper that introduced the topics covered in Current Issues in Linguistic Theory to an international audience and represented a clean break from structural linguistics of all varieties. This paper turned out to be "the initial germ of the research programme which was to lead to the principles-and-parameters modular theory, which in fact amounts to a discovery procedure, 'a scientific advance of the highest importance' that seemed to be 'hopelessly out of the question' at that time" (Otero, "Chomsky and the Challenges" 14) There was, however, a negative backlash to his presentation. Otero reports: "As often happens, some of the participants, including a variety of European professors, were apparently more concerned with defending what they took to be their territory than with any intellectual issues" ("Chomsky and the Challenges" 14).

In June of 1964, Chomsky delivered a series of lectures at the Linguistic Institute of the Linguistic Society of America (published in 1966 as Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar) . He also published Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965) and Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought (1966). He gave another set of lectures to a general audience, in Berkeley, in January of 1967, which was expanded and published as Language and Mind in 1968 (an enlarged edition -several later essays were added - came out in 1972). And he completed The Sound Pattern of English with Halle in 1968. In Matthews's words, "few scholars can have published so much, of such value and on such varied topics, in such a short time" (Grammatical Theory 205).

But this "classic period" was also a time of mounting worldwide tensions; the Cuba Crisis erupted and was defused, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. That very year, the United States began a systematic bombardment of rural Vietnam. Chomsky was to become increasingly discontent in the wake of such upheaval, and the seeds of what was to be a lifelong commitment to active political resistance were sown. Chomsky offers a snapshot of his activities at this time: "Those were pretty hectic days. I was often giving many political talks a day all over the place, getting arrested, going to meetings about resistance and other things, teaching my classes, playing with my kids, etc. I even managed to plant a lot of trees and shrubs, somehow. Looking back, I can't imagine how it was possible" (13 Feb. 1996).