"Syntactic Structures" (book)

"Syntactic Structures" is a foundational book by Noam Chomsky that introduced the concept that the rules governing how words are combined into sentences are part of an innate, universal system shared across languages. Chomsky challenged the idea that language learning is solely based on imitation and reinforcement, proposing instead a deep, structural grammar that explains the patterns of sentence formation. This work laid the groundwork for modern theories of syntax and generative grammar, shaping how linguists understand the innate capabilities of the human mind to produce and interpret language.