Linguist Noam Chomsky's controversial theories maintain that the human brain has an innate language faculty, and that part of this biological endowment is a universal grammar, a theory of principles common to all languages. Thus, all human languages and the ways in which children learn them are remarkably similar. An important influence in contemporary philosophy, psychology, education and intellectual history, Chomsky has introduced new perspectives on language, the creative individual and the nature of human freedom in society. This book is the ideal introduction to a major 20th century thinker.