（外文电子版资料）Chomsky, Noam - Language and Freedom (1970).pdf

Language and Freedom (1970) HEN I WAS INVITED TO SPEAK ON THE TOPIC LANGUAGE and freedom, I was puzzled and intrigued. Most of my professional life has been devoted to the study of language. There would be no great difficulty in finding a topic to discuss in that domain. And there is much to say about the problems of freedom and liberation as they pose themselves to us and to others in the mid-twen- tieth century. What is troublesome in the title of this lecture is the con- junction. In what way are language and freedom to be interconnected? As a preliminary, let me say just a word about the contemporary study of language, as I see it. There are many aspects of language and language use that raise intriguing questions, but-in my judgment-only a few have so far led to productive theoretical work. In particular, our deepest The Chomsky Reader 10 11 Interpreting the World insights are in the area of formal grammatical structure. A person who phy, the highest dignity of Philosophy consists precisely therein, that it knows a language has acquired a system of rules and principles--a gen- stakes all on human freedom. erative grammar, in technical terms--that associates sound and mean- We are living, once again, at such a time. A revolutionary ferment is ing in some specific fashion. There are many reasonably well-founded sweeping the so-called Third World, awakening enormous masses from and, I think, rather enlightening hypotheses as to the character of such torpor and acquiescence in