This book presents a discussion by Noam Chomsky of some of the much controversial issues raised within the scientific field of linguistics since the inception of generative grammar in 1957. Based on the text of the talk given by Noam Chomsky at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, in 2002, the book presents Professor Chomsky’s views on the philosophical bases and the historical development of the field of biolinguistics in the course of which he focuses on issues such as cognition, linguistics as a science, how the field developed, its nature and how it fits into the other domains of science.

The questions raised within the question-comment session lead Professor Chomsky to expand his views on the nature of Universal Grammar, in particular on the philosophical underpinnings of the program which disfavors the view that languages are radically different. Professor Chomsky also answers questions on the implications of theory-internal assumptions such as the determinants of phasehood in syntax, the nature of the innateness hypothesis, the nature-nurture debate within language acquisition, in particular the validity of the poverty of the stimulus arguments, the nature of the semantic component and the representation of the mental lexicon and the political implications of his Universal Grammar position on his activist stance.