Rules and Representations

In Rules and Representations, first published in 1980, Noam Chomsky lays out many of the concepts that have made his approach to linguistics and human cognition so instrumental to our understanding of language.

Chomsky arrives at his well-known position that there is a universal grammar, structured in the human mind and common to all human languages. Based on Chomsky's 1978 Woodbridge Lectures, this edition contains revised versions of the lectures and two new essays.

Ian Hacking

From time to time, ever since Plato, grammar has been more than the bane of school children or a topic for scholars. It owes its present prominence outside linguistics to some theses stated twenty-five years ago by Noam Chomsky. The proposals have since evolved, and Rules and Representations is a useful book with which to catch up on the state of the art . . . . It is like watching the grand master play, blindfolded, thirty-six simultaneous chess matches against the local worthies. . . . Chomsky must be one of the most reasoning of living men.

Noam Chomsky is an Institute Professor and professor of linguistics at MIT. He is the author of many books on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, and politics.

Norbert Hornstein is professor of linguistics at the University of Maryland. He is the author of several books and the coeditor (with Louise M. Antony) of Chomsky and His Critics.