Generative Grammar's Grave Foundational Errors

This work examines Noam Chomsky's widely accepted ontological assumptions, now referred to as "e;biolinguistics"e;-and demonstrates that they are internally inconsistent. Notably, it is shown that Chomsky himself has at least once admitted this flaw. Additionally, the volume challenges a fundamental assumption from Chomsky's 1950s linguistic writings. This is the claim that the grammars of natural languages, particularly of English, must be constructive (proof-theoretic) devices, usually called generative grammars. It is shown that this persistent view cannot in principal account for a multitude of linguistic structures realized as perfectly natural sentences. Finally, the work scrutinizes Chomsky's frequent assertion that "e;there is essentially only one language spoken on Earth,"e; revealing it to have no actual substance. The exposition of these flaws calls for a reassessment of fundamental aspects of generative linguistics.