英语名人堂：艾弗拉姆·诺姆·乔姆斯基（在线收听）

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, linguist, philosopher, and political commentator. He is a top professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His ideas completely changed teachers’ understanding of how we learn languages. Chomsky is well known for his prolific 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, psychology and politics and has influenced hundreds of researchers and academics.

Chomsky is a fierce critic of US foreign policy and continually questions the misuse of American power. He has strongly opposed all wars from Vietnam to Iraq.  He is largely shunned 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.