Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

He&#x27;s 88, still mentally very sharp and probably moved there for the weather(aside from the great department filled with old students).<p>His work ethic is incredible, he spends 5 hours a day responding to emails from the public- I&#x27;ve received a detailed response every time I&#x27;ve sent one. The amount of time he spends engaging with even terribly misinformed(but well meaning) people is truly astounding, and unparalleled amongst public figures as far as I can tell.<p>Here&#x27;s an example(<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;chomsky&#x2F;comments&#x2F;6tz1xp&#x2F;what_do_you_guys_think_about_ncs_argument_here&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;chomsky&#x2F;comments&#x2F;6tz1xp&#x2F;what_do_you...</a>) of some random kid badgering Chomsky with emails, and he still takes the time out to respond to every one of his questions, even though he gets more than a hundred mails a day.

I suspect that when Chomsky dies, a burst of new and valuable linguistics research will arrive. I&#x27;m <i>not</i> saying I hope he dies soon. However, I think his current impact on the field is probably negative.<p>My theory derives from these sources: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.economist.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;books-and-arts&#x2F;21695371-theories-worlds-best-known-linguist-have-become-rather-weird-noam-chomsky" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.economist.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;books-and-arts&#x2F;21695371-theor...</a> (Chomsky&#x27;s recent theory of how language evolved has not been accepted favorably), and<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nber.org&#x2F;papers&#x2F;w21788" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nber.org&#x2F;papers&#x2F;w21788</a> (this happens a lot)

I haven&#x27;t read his political works but Noam Chomsky as a social phenomenon is interesting. His subject matter is often media and political manipulation and people who haven&#x27;t read him often feel compelled by an entrenched, opposed political view to voice extremely strong opinions about his work. And they&#x27;re doing this without any conscious irony.

World-renowned linguist and all people are talking about is his political views (mostly by his own design).<p>Make no mistake, Chomsky&#x27;s work was significant to both linguistics proper (X-bar theory, generative grammar, universal grammar) and computer science (Chomsky hierarchy).<p>In recent years though he more often than not comes across as a grumpy old man who can&#x27;t seem to accept the fact that linguistic theory has moved on to often simpler, more elegant approaches.

Chomsky is a great critic of social issues like imperialism, manufactured consent, and state capitalism. However he has been proved devastatingly wrong about Venezuela and as of today won&#x27;t admit the problems with state socialism. I hope his new students realize this.

Congratulations to Noam Chomsky! I remember when he was giving a talk at Columbia university and the line for entry was literally around the block !<p>Great man.

I just about died when I read, &#x27;He formulated the algorithm &quot;context-free grammar&quot;...&#x27;

TIL that Noam Chomsky answers emails. It&#x27;s always been my thing to reach out to personal heroes of mine. What&#x27;s the best way to reach out to him?

Interesting move given the hostile AZ political climate.

Does anybody else find these sorts of discussions to be just fundamentally <i>cringey</i> as hell? On both sides. Stuff like &quot;We agree mainstream black culture is terrible.&quot;<p>Like I don&#x27;t think either would have the guts to say that in front of a black person.

As a UofA grad I can tell you the hippies down there are going to go absolutely apeshit. The university is half Rob Gronkowski and half Cesar Chavez. The Gronks all leave after school but the Cesar&#x27;s all stick around the university and think, act, and look like Noam. He&#x27;ll fit right in.