英语名人堂：艾弗拉姆·诺姆·乔姆斯基

艾弗拉姆·诺姆·乔姆斯基（Avram Noam Chomsky，1928年12月7日—），美国哲学家。是麻省理工学院语言学的荣誉退休教授。乔姆斯基的《生成语法》被认为是20世纪理论语言学研究上最伟大的贡献。

Noam Chomsky is an American author, lecturer, linguist¹, philosopher, and political commentator². He is a top professor of linguistics³ at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His ideas completely changed teachers’ understanding of how we learn languages. Chomsky is well known for his prolific⁴ research and publications. He is cited as a source more often than any other living person.

 

Chomsky was born in 1928 in Pennsylvania, USA. The young Noam got into writing and politics at a very early age. When he was 10, he wrote an essay on the threat of fascism during the Spanish Civil War. Needless to say, he was a gifted student and he followed current events very closely. He graduated with an MA in philosophy and linguistics.

 

Chomsky received his Ph.D. in linguistics in 1955. His thesis helped shape today’s understanding of what language is and how we all learn it so naturally. He joined the teaching staff of MIT in 1955 and has remained there to this day. Chomsky has spent decades there researching and writing on language, psychology⁵ and politics and has influenced hundreds of researchers and academics.

 

Chomsky is a fierce critic of US foreign policy and continually questions the misuse⁶ of American power. He has strongly opposed all wars from Vietnam to Iraq.  He is largely shunned⁷ by the media in the United States for being unpatriotic and has received death threats. However, he is in high demand for his ideas and speeches around the world.

1 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

2 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

3 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

4 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。

5 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

6 misuse   

n.误用，滥用；vt.误用，滥用

参考例句：

• It disturbs me profoundly that you so misuse your talents.你如此滥用自己的才能，使我深感不安。
• He was sacked for computer misuse.他因滥用计算机而被解雇了。

7 shunned   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was shunned by her family when she remarried. 她再婚后家里人都躲着她。
• He was a shy man who shunned all publicity. 他是个怕羞的人，总是避开一切引人注目的活动。 来自《简明英汉词典》