Introduction

We’re doing a deep dive into generativism, the linguistic school of thought championed by Noam Chomsky. It’s had an enormous impact on the direction of linguistics, and even those who disagree with the generative programme will be at least somewhat conversant with its claims and the debate around it. Here, we’ll try to answer questions such as:

• What is generativism, and what are its claims?
• What does generativism help you to do in linguistics?
• What is the relationship to nativism, the idea that some aspects language are inborn?
• How does generativism relate to functionalism?
• What should the next generation of generative linguists keep in mind?