THE ARCHITECTURE OF LANGUAGE by NOAM CHOMSKY

                               

Where shall I begin the review  of this book?

        It begins with the editors’ preface. The editors-Nirmalangshu Mukharji,Bibudhendra Narayan Patnaik and Rama Kant Agnihotri-  are Indians. They themselves are of the opinion that popular, prolonged and intellectual debates are seldom seen in Indian academic scene.But,in their view, Noam Chomsky’s lectures in India in 1996 generated unprecedented enthusiasm in the academic community here.

        The editors’ preface to the book indicates certain serious issues to be touched before we read Chomsky. One of them is the mere marginal realization of the general conceptual goals of a research programme generally.

        After the preface you have only two parts to read. The first one is Chomsky’s Delhi lecture in 1996 and the second, its discussion that ensued. The 30 pages of the lecture and the 38 pages of its discussion make the reading of this book a simple task. The remaining pages contain the preface and clarificatory notes.

      Although Chomsky’s Syntactic Structures was published in 1957,I did not get opportunity to read it even in early nineties.Meanwhile,the books which I read then on psychology published by Progress Publishers, Moscow could, in fact, present nothing much better than the behaviourist theories of learning. The two names which caught my attention in the books were  V I Lenin and Ivan Pavlov.

        ‘According to Lenin, mind is a highly organized matter.’

        The authors’ attempt seemed only to substantiate this point with the help of the history of psychology. The books  created an impression that Pavlov’s was probably the greatest contribution to psychology till then. Psychologists like Sigmund Freud were  thought to be in the idealists’ block.They,therefore,hardly give any significance to such well-known psychologists

         "A child’s brain is not a blank slate after birth but it is pre-equipped with a biologically determined ability to learn languages."


(-Chomsky in his Rules and Representations,I think)

         This was the statement that linked me to Chomsky’s world.Cognitivism was widely discussed in India and popularly prescribed grammar books such as ‘Guide to Structural Patterns’ by A.S.Hornby  became almost a joke later. In second language learning, mechanical drills lost their charm.Chomskian thoughts almost revolutionized the field. English teachers  everywhere experienced it.Besides,communists,especially the communists in Kerala, welcome Chomsky mainly because of his severe criticism of US foreign policy and the legitimacy of the US power. May be ,this has left him uncriticized by the communists to a great extent.

         The question,therefore,remained in my thoughts was this:

        How much do Chomsky’s views correspond to materialism- whether dialectical or not?

        Although it is apparent that language learning is not so simple as behaviorists analysed it, to me, Chomsky seems to mystify things a bit especially when he states in his Delhi lecture that ‘science is a strange activity and it only works for simple problems’.

        He further makes it clear as follows:

      “The idea that deep scientific analysis tells you something about problems of human beings and our lives and our inter-relations with one another and so on is mostly pretence in my opinion-self-serving pretence which is itself a technique of domination and exploitation and should be avoided.”

         An interesting detail in the beginning of his lecture is the following interaction of Chomsky with the audience:

“Can you hear me?”

(Section of the audience):No

If you say ‘no’, then you can.

         In ‘Discussion’, there are a number of serious questions from the audience and Chomsky’s answers to them. Some of the questions are anyway a bit funny(I do not mean they are silly).For example:

QUESTION:

Is it possible to have bilingual or trilingual children out of mixed marriages?

CHOMSKY:

It doesn’t make any difference. These things are all totally independent. It is like asking: Can you have long arms coming out of mixed marriages? Or an interest in Greek philosophy?

I am going to read two other books by Chomsky.See them below. 

Of these books, On Language(Penguin Books,2002) discusses linguistics mainly. Necessary Illusions-Thought Control in Democratic Societies(Viva Books Private Limited 2007) is Chomsky’s social criticism. I think, reading the two books  together will help me understand Chomsky better.An amalgam of his social criticism and linguistic theories in my mind........I am waiting for such an experience.I hope I will get something better to tell you then.