Chomsky's major claims about language include the following. There is a fundamentaldistinction between knowledge and behavior, and it is the former that isthe proper focus of scientific study. An adequate description of a speaker'slinguistic knowledge requires positing a set of abstract principles. Thediscovery of such a set of principles, acquired uniformly, in a relativelyshort time, on the basis of fragmentary evidence, suggests a biologicalcomponent in language acquisition of some complexity. As social critic and political activist, Chomsky, a libertarian socialist,is acknowledged to be a persuasive critic of U.S. foreign policy.
Linguists look at languages to learn about their generalproperties and differences.
They believe that if they can uncover the complexsystems of languages, they will contribute significantly to the study ofhuman minds. Noam Chomsky is one of the prominentAmerican linguists who has developed theories about the underlying principlesof languages. Linguists study languages from many perspectives. As a result, several sub-fieldsof linguistics have emerged. The application of the methods and results oflinguistics to such areas as language teaching, national language policies,lexicography, translation, language in politics, adver- tising, classrooms, and courts, and the like.