If you’re interested in languages, linguistics, or world politics, you’ve probably already come across the name Noam Chomsky. His multi-hyphenated achievements on Wikipedia call him “an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historical essayist, social critic, and political activist”. American author Margalit Fox goes so far as to credit him as the father of modern linguistics.
While he has many interesting insights on a variety of topics, his most intriguing, in my opinion, is about language. The way Chomsky describes the characteristics and functions of language makes it a natural component like animals and plants. Now, it is not his open argument, but his analysis of ‘language’ that leads to this conclusion.
How is language a natural creation? First, it resides in the mind, just as does the perception of fear or the desire to sleep. In other words, language exists in the brain. Chomsky also argues that language is biologically generated and innate to all human beings from birth. Now the question arises that where do these thoughts come from? Chomsky offers an explanation.
If you look at nature, you will realize that everything has an internal structure and this structure is consistent. Similarly, language is also formed on the basis of a coherent system. Chomsky points out that most languages and all major languages of the world have word classes of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. This means that the basis of all these languages is essentially the same.