Generative Grammar and Modern Cognitive Science

Abstract

Generative Grammar (GG) emerged in the mid-1950s at the confluence of (i) the revival of and renewed appreciation for insights from the first cognitive revolution that took place in the (extended) Cartesian era (17th-18th centuries), (ii) the solidification of the scientific study of behavioral instincts (ethology), (iii) progress in the domain of computation (nature of algorithms and characterization of notions like infinity, etc.), and (iv) dissatisfaction with the then dominant behaviorist paradigm in psychology, which took external behavior not as evidence for what goes on inside, but as the basic limit of inquiry. Chomskys early work contributed to all four strands of research that constitute the conceptual underpinnings of GG (see Chomsky 1955, 1957, 1959, 1965, 1966). Today, Cartesian, biological, computational, and internalist considerations not only define GG but modern cognitive science as a whole.