Syntactic Structures by Noam Chomsky

Chomsky’s epochal book influenced both mid-century computational theory and artificial intelligence by introducing the concept of Transformational-Generative Grammar, “the most significant development in linguistic theory and research in the 20th century.” Generative Grammar seeks to explain how humans are able to produce and understand an infinite number of grammatically correct sentences. The theory proposes that language is innately hardwired into the human brain and that there are underlying rules or structures that govern the way in which sentences are formed. It has had a significant impact on computational theory. The theory has inspired the development of algorithms and computational models that attempt to simulate the way in which humans generate and understand language.