The Concept of Language (Noam Chomsky) 

That’s the very definition of a great teacher.

the perfect aseertive communicator

Perfect z-ist gatekeeper.

@A W: That's just professor Chomsky using your language to explain to you your language.

It's an Interview. So you can stop-uttering-BS or shut tf up

It's an interview technique

Agreed. The interviewer is good at opening up the metaphorical conversation jar

Ralph Cramden he said interviewers as in plural so their would be correct. Moron.

@@wallacecleaver4485 Nope. "Their" is correct in that context.

Yes, I was impressed my the interviewer, who just asked the simple questions the most people would like to ask a linguist.

Not having the erudition or dignity of professor Chomsky I can only ask, how do you say wanker in French?

@@artyblartyfartblast8465 Well, that all depends, but if the aim is to offend a Frenchman, nothing will do that as well as calling them wanker in English instead of French.

@@artyblartyfartblast8465 Alas! The great Peter Sellers (“Inspecteur” Clouseau) is no longer with us. I think that nowadays the most best versions of the beautiful French language are spoken in Africa.

@@patrickgleason2066 That's fair comment. Until the railway (and WWI) came along to unify the country and mix the population all around, France had three main Frenches, plus some regional languages like Breton. There was Parisien, which is today's standard French, and then Langue d'Oil and Langue d'Oc, Oi and Oc being the regional ways of pronouncing "oui." They correspond to the diagonal line across "Gaul" where people on the south-west of the line don't get born with the Mongol Spot on their butts, i.e. the line of, uh, penetration of Genghis Khan's troops' genes. Many French will say this is ridiculous, just as many Japanese will tell you that Japan is racially homogeneous and linguistically united. Japan, in real life, was united for the first time by the importation of the Boeing 747 for its domestic airlines -- although the railways are said to have raised the average Japanese IQ by ten points by giving farm boys somebody to chase other than their cousins.

@@patrickgleason2066 affirmation gratuite .... Est-elle un exemple de CANCEL CULTURE ? =la pire des maladies sorties des universités américaines.... Par contre, Haîti s'illustre par de grands écrivains français contemporains. La Martinique et la Guadeloupe aussi. Le Sénégal s'est illustré avec Léopold Segar Senghor. L'Afrique francophone a bien sûr une population parlant souvent excellemment français.

Let us hope

He was super sharp here, but at 91 he has slowed down quite a bit.

I still don't understand why in English there's this "UP" at the end of a lot of verbs... like, why! ??? .. : bring up, get up, stand up, pick up, whatever UP... endlessness.. instead of a single verb word, which would be "easier" to understand somehow. (at least from a Spanish native point of view) .... So, now I just say "up" at the end of whatever verb and 99% of the time I'd be right :).. but in my mind, if the "up" is there or not, it has the same meaning for me at least, it's just an Extra filling word.

@@chileflake1656 Good question. The 'up' implies different things in different circumstances, and being fluent in English, these meanings just come naturally to me. Maybe sometimes it is redundant altogether. All languages have things like this (redundancies or 'phrasal verbs' without obvious meaning). I have similar feelings about random objects being given a 'gender' in some languages. In the case of my original comment, the 'up' implies completeness. If Noam Chomsky is 'shriveled up', that means he could not possibly get any more shriveled. The 'up' in 'used up' works the same way. If I have 'used up my toothpaste', that means there is no toothpaste left - which is a different meaning to if I have simply 'used my toothpaste'. In these cases, I like to think of the subject as a vertical loading bar, that rises upwards until it is complete. But in other circumstances the meaning is different. For example, 'pick' by itself, can just mean to choose something mentally (unless we're talking about 'picking fruit'). But if I say 'pick up', that implies physically taking something into my possession (either directly into my hands, or placing that thing into something I own, like a car or box). If I am at the supermarket/grocery store, and am looking at the breakfast cereals on the shelf, if I say 'I picked the box of cereal I wanted', by itself, that just means I have chosen in my mind which box I want to take. But if I say 'I picked up the box of cereal I wanted', that means I physically moved my hands and took that box off the shelf. I don't know where all the different cases/uses of 'up' being added come from. No doubt there is an interesting linguistic history that a linguist like Noam Chomsky might be able to tell you about. Anyway, I hope this helps.

@@binishulman8655 ... Thx for the nice and detailed explanation.. Completeness and Physically are the keyword here that I haven't thought before... Yes it gives a more Visual meaning now :) .. I'll try to google this based on your feedback, there must be some info exactly like this, in order to learn how to speak better native english. In Spanish there are no redundancies where one speaks "correctly". But when ppl say something like "climb towards up" or "subir para arriba", it's not correct but uneducated people still say it and sounds funny at first, second time is just annoying.

He have more street credit than most of us

ubitubee he's been arrested before. More than I can say for myself

Oh he is, Linguist between the sheets, Fuckboy in the Streets.

Yep. I think of the streets of New York as "the streets."

He’s a true OG

He just studies hard and eats his vegetables.

@Owneador1337 Try to keep an open mind. Maybe you won't agree with everything you hear but he might make you think about some things in a different way.

@Owneador1337 Fair enough. I can't judge because I don't know what you've heard. As a parting suggestion I'd only recommend seeing if a topic that you have no strong prior opinion of or one that's far enough away historically to have some objective distance on might be more palatable to get his take on.

@Owneador1337 you dont understand or explain your argument coherently for you to dismiss chomsky for what you stated makes you look uninformed

you're beyond pathetic

And he can still talk circles around everyone 😂

@@Saber23 It is a matter of training. Your short term memory would be deteriorating already from the age of 20 if you didn't train it. But you can train it, keep it at the same level or even improve it, till you are very old.

@@Octopussyist yeah I guess

@@Saber23 Great - the sooner you realize that the better for you. The brain is more than just the "home of your mind" - It is actually a physiological "thing" that needs exercise and training just like your muscles or joints. Look up "brain training" or "memory training" and you'll find out more.

It's nuts. His mastery of turning thought into language with such precision... Is so impressive.

so much "clarity and insight", can you please explain what it is about?

jose sanchez that made me laugh out loud, well done.

Indeed. I remember sitting through lectures on communication in which the lecturer was quoting Chomsky constantly and I didn't understand much of what he was saying, he bored the parse off me and I felt like kicking him up the parse. Chomsky makes it interesting and clear.

More than all my lecturers class combined.

Totally. I discovered something more about language listening to this than any other.

Yes! That's captured exactly what I was thinking but couldn't quite express when I said that I found the Prof calming.

My first reaction was to say just the opposite. I often find him extremely energizing but when I think a bit I think I get what you are saying. There can be times I'll just re-read something he's written just because I love following the arguments, his writing and conversation are a model to me of how a disciplined intellectual should communicate. And his speech is kind of calming, it's one of the things I've noticed working in political and science/engineering teams: the person who knows the most and commands the most respect is usually not the person who is loud and abusive but the ones that talk like Chomsky does, with calm authority.

Nicholas Dedless Thanks for your comments. I agree entirely. To follow his arguments frequently requires considerable concentration, but the effort is well rewarded.

Martin Mitchell If you find him calming then you should read his book "On Anarchism" (politically, he is an anarchist, but forget your high-school definition of anarchy) or perhaps his "How the World Works."

Nicholas Dedless those are some really astute observations. Chomsky is very deliberate and straight forward. He never seems like he is forcing a point.

Thank you!!

Thank you

@@nartinnecromancer3683 Thank you very much

thank u my friend

👏🏼

I am most interested in finding a theory that, in statements seemingly self evident, explains with crystal clarity, exactly how it is that matter and culture have collaborated in making this mysterious 'being' I call my conscious self. The theory that comes closest among the few I've encountered is marvelously presented in Julian Jaynes' great book, "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind". The writing has the clarity of Sam Harris and the literary flavour of Darwin and Dickens. Language lies at the heart of the theory. Just wondering if you've read it.

Isn’t Chomsky like 96? He still gives lectures?

@@locomotive9702 After one turns 65 or so a few years ago may easily mean 20.

@@REDPUMPERNICKEL Ah.

@@CippiCippiCippi Different strokes for different folks takes on a whole new meaning. lol Where did that come from? What I meant to say was more like... I have a relativity theory. When one is two a year is half a lifetime. When one is ten a year is ten percent. When one is 65 a year is just a tiny fraction and memory is funny.

knowledge itself for me

​@@gauravmahajan5094 Google Terrence Mckenna and his views on language...they are not contradicting Chomsky's..but they do add a broader viewing angle on language.

So you could help me with linguistic?

@@kingboo843 Culture is not our friend~^^

I’ve always been interested in linguistics

except when speaking full truth

Read Tom Wolfe's "The Kingdom of Speech" - you'll change your mind.

@@bammbamm12 The Pirahã tribe was and is, in fact, capable of learning Portuguese with no more education than, say, you or I would need to learn a foreign language. The rebuttal of Chomsky's theory by Daniel Everett, and Wolfe's endorsement thereof, are, therefore, both complete bollocks. Moreover, the idea that there exists a sub-group of the same species as the rest of us who mysteriously lack a fundamental neural pattern that the rest of the *species* happens to have is outlandish at best, so it definitely requires more rigour than the negligent Everett and the egregiously biased Wolfe ever saw fit to give it. Darwin's theory was evidenced by the existence of vestigial organs, to name but one point. I also find it more than a little naive of Wallace to immediately assume that God instilled man with language just because he couldn't figure out how it happened over time, and more naive still of Wolfe to side with him. In summary, the book's shit. Worth a read regardless

@@bammbamm12 also Wolfe said Einstein discovered the speed of light lmaooo

Well, he surely impresses adolescent. They are easy to be impressed by any shit.

you just have to expand your vocabulary and then you’ll have the words for the thoughts you couldn’t articulate before

Editing teams be like: 😐

lots of these questions are not very good questions for a riveting Q&A. they're mostly low ball for someone like Chomsky because many of the things they discuss here are taught in a first year linguistics course, even in the mid 90's I assume (altho can't say for sure), but for a general Q&A for wider audiences it's great!

huh-who knew...wow

TheMedia-Hacker shit no, really?!? how?

@alexanderbretta really? fuck :D (knew that before though)

alexanderbretta hahahaha gotta love your no bs attitude, sir! 😂

@@AaronMartinProfessional sometimes people need help ... ask, you never know! ;-)

And that's why we need to gut linguistic, literature and philosophy programs in universities as much as possible.

Reminds me of Stephen Colbert, except for the screaming and high pitched voice...

Noam Chomsky doesn't have to be in quotation marks.

Everyone has a different understanding of langage. They might want to express a vocal intonation to the reader for example@@lukerogers151

@Sad Sack prove that your nutjob conspiracies exist first

@Sad Sack Forget to take your medication, Sad?

Yeah but he literally like gets no hoes 🙅

@Sad Sack shut up

Chomsky is a con artist, and at that a sad one -the sadness eluding the like of your kind of admirers. Which is quite genially humorous athough this joke again is on him ... none ever forced him to answer questions he hasn't fully figured out for himself, or was he?

This is exactly why the fatherless take his words to be gospel.

I don't think so, brother. From your comment and from your eagerness to watch a video on a subject you didn’t have any interest in, I think you are naturally an intelligent and open-minded person. The internet is weird. It does not change us, just makes us more of who we are. I know a lot of dumb and narrow-minded people, who do not try to open their minds, but seek out things on the internet which actively make them dumber and more narrow-minded!

We’re you honestly close-minded you would have skipped this video.

If we were alive 50 years ago we would say that about libraries, and 100 years ago we would say that about newspapers, and 300 years ago we would say that about the town crier maybe. The internet makes it much easier for sure, but we still have to meet it with our own attitudes.

Right???!!!? (To your last statement.) I guarantee if I had heard this lecture as the 12 year old child I was at the time, it would have inspired and stuck with me for life.

you HAD no interest (:

Still, as a good anglo-american he is way to skeptical for my liking

Perhaps he knows how State control of language truncates human perception.

Really smart people know that in fact our knowledge about everything is limited, and only only Instagram gurus and stupid people believe they know everything

That really shows you the cesspool that modern journalism has become

Chomsky is a Zionist gatekeeper. As such, he ultimately supports the Deep State because it supports Israel, The Homeland of the Jews, which is why he doesn't actively promote third parties. He has openly said that he is a Zionist. And he's a liar: www.gilad.co.uk/writings/chomsky-bds-and-the-jewish-left-paradigm.html

@@dpersonal4187 Ooooppssss...missed taking our meds today, did we???

@@KeboEdan1 Yes, thanks, just took my meds. Chomsky is a traitor to the US and his pretend ideals. WALTER LIPPMAN created the phrase "Manufacturing Consent" and Chomsky stole it. Edward Bernays had another word for it, "Engineering Consent". Chomsky CO-WROTE 'Manufacturing Consent' with Herman who wrote MOST of the book, and then Chomsky went on to take credit for all of it. Lipman and Bernays wrote about it years before Chomsky stole it. Want to hear more about how he's a Zionist gatekeeper?

kage : He hides it well!

D Personal : Don’t do much Reading, do you...?! Chomsky cites Benays and Lippmann.

pfft i heard he can't even whistle and his bee bop jazz skat its mediocre at best. Not impressed :/

He's going to be 90 in few days

I am honestly afraid. He has been our watch post...our moral standpoint. I look to him when I don't understand an international or multinational situation. I have a library of his books...I get the philosophy but having a wide ranged and honest perspective of individual situations is so daunting. He reads all of the newspapers....I trust his point of view. I truly am worried.

Here is a guy from Iraqi Kurdistan who will cry with you when he’s gone. Chomsky has been fascinating me since the very first time I listen to him.

mechtheist he’s not gone yet. Don’t kill him!

We all are going to be dead soon enough. But we can make our loved ones live for ever in ourselves. By being faithful to their teaching for instance. Luckily, Noam's legacy is going to be enormous.

@Rosetta Stoned As I don't want to be ignorant I very much do.

@Rosetta Stoned That is very good to know. I'm pleased you are still around.

how did your prof get that idea about Chomsky? He has always argued that language is an inherent faculty of humans

@@cedricrust9953 From Transformational Analysis. (1955), Syntactic Structures (1957), Theory of Generative Grammar (1966), to name a few. These works by Chomsky were quite popular with Russian linguists. To our old professor’s credit, it was him, who established the Structural Linguistics subdepartment within his school of General Linguistics, and that was my major.

We take so many answers for granted, without understanding why or how they are true.

Trust me, language is perceived INSIDE the senses, therefore they grow in latents underlaid realities which affect memory and consequently the way you perceive reality and the way you'll interact with it in future. Advertises are a science at this. Let's say that language is a mystical connection between sight and hearing. And of course a connective thing like this has been invented by women.

wtf lol stupid

@@SDRUFFA Can you try to be a little more vague. Not vague enough.

@@SDRUFFA Never trust a person who starts by saying, "trust me".

@@SDRUFFA I'm in the future now and my interaction with this is confusion.

Jayne mansfield

@@makatelli ....how nice 4 you. 😯

Language and Programming Channel where can I find this study? Can you tell me the name.

@Language and Programming Channel there are a lot of studies mate. a specific name/date would be useful

From an early age it is vital to the human development (perhaps how humans have spread all over world?) that a child learns to socialise with those it comes into contact with. Learning the acceptable ways of behaving( according to the local cultural norms), learning communication skills thru acquiring words that mean something to the child, but, also mean the same to those around. Misunderstanding words, can lead to disaster!

It's more crear, and more than that.

)

+Brain Phelps Are you serious? Thats awesome

Never trust anyone who uses the word "utilize" unironically. Especially when they use it wrong in a comment on a linguistics video.

That sentence structure is fundementally similar in all language is just Chomsky's theory. It has been more and more criticized in recent times.

​@@ernststravoblofeld According to the Oxford Learner's Dictionary utilize something (as something) means to use something, especially for a practical purpose I'd say it's used properly. You may have a bias towards the word, though, and if that is the case I am truly sorry if you were somehow hurt.

@@ConeTheBoss559 That's nice.

2019

He wasn't even wrecking people back in 1971. let alone now.

plus on totally different, more complex subjects

Chompers convoluted diatribes mean nothing by his own admission.

Вячеслав Тельнов 2020

I missed that! But I suspect the interviewer did not mean to jab Noam like that. LMAO!

Actually, Chomsky does use humour as a rhetorical tool. Of the driest kind

+Officialhelpkenet Why? I feel sad. I am not very smart, but I try as I do, I cannot think of one way Noam says that has helped me understand language. He seems to be followed by worshippers and some very bright minds among them - but they seem to be on a ship of fools. How would I know? Who am I to say? For all the hype and worship let's look at the tenants of the program - a) That all languages are the same - Really? They do not seem the same to me. Sure, there are universals but a hell of a lot is different and we are yet to account for it, and we won't of we keep insisting they are negligible or trivial differences. I am trying to learn Japanese and it is tougher than I could ever imagine. One-to-one correspondence to English is lacking 2) We have modules in our brain, for language acquisition, for verbs, nouns - really, I do not know, but I get a hunch..I see Willy Wonker and his chocolate factory 3) Language is not learned and mastered through usage. Really? Look me in the eye and tell me so> tell all the millions of foreign language students 4) Syntax is discrete system? MMnn...everytime we use an idiom we violate that. 4) There is deep structure. Now I think Noam has abandoned this, but I do not know if his followers have, and I wonder if they care? We have a language instinct - and so if we do, some of us seem to have a very broken one, sometimes.

XD

I found it interesting so please check these verses , it makes so much sense 26:05 to 26:50 ﷽ Surah Al-Baqarah 2:31 ( verse/ ayah 31) وَعَلَّمَ ءَادَمَ ٱلْأَسْمَآءَ كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى ٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةِ فَقَالَ أَنۢبِـُٔونِى بِأَسْمَآءِ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ

Yes

Annoying

like Borat or Ali G

Legit looked like they just filmed Chomsky talking for 30 minutes and edited in questions after the fact haha

My guess is they only had one camera available, or some similar limitation, and had to re-record the interviewers questions on camera afterwards.would have been and still is common practice but is usually stitched together with a bit more finesse ;)

Yeah, definitely could have watched another half an hour of that!

Al Salamu 'alaykom wa rahmatu Allah wa barakatuh, i found it interesting to show you this : 26:05 to 26:50 ﷽ Surah Al-Baqarah 2:31 ( verse/ ayah 31) وَعَلَّمَ ءَادَمَ ٱلْأَسْمَآءَ كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى ٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةِ فَقَالَ أَنۢبِـُٔونِى بِأَسْمَآءِ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ

Lisa Lovely LPA - You can still study languages :)

@@brady3126 my thoughts, exactly. My secret is to learn them one at a time and associate a deep necessity to the task. You'll see, success is just a chat away.

你现在也可以试试 :)

Start with English.

@@everynewdayisablessing8509 LMFAO

Many times it's prejudice, which has nothing to do with language itself. When one group dislikes another group, they often dislike their language, too. It becomes a proxy for all kinds of stuff that has nothing to do with language, per see. When a New Yorker tells the Alabaman, "I can't understand you," they really mean that "you speak differently than me, I don't like it because I don't like this difference. I find it threatening for some reason, so for the duration of our conversation here, I will simply deny that I understand the meaning of your spoken speech.

If vowels are pronounced differently in accents, for example, the decoding would require more effort and especially willingness to tune in and decode- a bit like when an enthusiastic language learner with little new language knowledge (learnt from textbooks, that have not much in common with spoken language)immerses themselves, opens ears eyes and mind to decode and learn learn learn... someone not understanding an accent gives up to soon because of attitude (rendering lower value to that different accent, less motivation to apply effort - a bit like unconscious bias when best intentions, and conscious bias when a d/ck).

Really is though. Glad I'm not the only one doing repeats of this distilled brilliance.

Steven Yourke As brilliant as he is in some areas his politics are horrible. Part of his ideology involves direct democracy. I don't understand how anyone can think that's a good idea, but plenty of people do.

Steven Yourke Chomsky's writings on politics and society are garbage. But, the real issue is you bringing this up on a video about fucking languages. Try not being a leftist ideologue.

fishblades Plenty of people is being generous, but yea, you got a nice chunk of young folks falling for his crap.

+zico739 care to provide points of his contributions which are worthy of being called garbage.

fishblades I'm pretty sure this is sarcasm. But Zico's comment made me doubt. This is sarcasm, right? RIGHT??

One question: Are you suggesting that people wanting to learn a language should learn to read and speak and writing will come easier IF YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW TO WRITE IN YOUR LANGUAGE?? I learned a language by traditional ways, at a language school, one hour writing, one hour reading, one hour attempting to speak, one hour for new vocabulary... it was hard as hell for about eight months, then it, the advancement, became a lot easier and faster.