Subject: 3 . 417 citationi can't resist put in my tuppence worth on chomsky 's citation record . here be my very informal observation of how he be treat by non ( theoretical ) linguist . ( 1 ) mathematical theory of formal language . chomsky still get cite almost automatically for his pioneer work on hierarchy of language . ( 2 ) philosophy of language . c get cite a lot for his nativist claim : his argument be usually reject . fodor 's much more radical nativism get even more attention and even more rejection . c also get cite a lot in discussion of wittgenstein , usually as an example of the sort of narrow formalist , rule-base view a language that wittgenstein consistently argue against . ( 3 ) psychology . c have frequently claim that what he be do be scientific psychology , but this have fail to impress psychologist . the competence / performance distinction , the autonomous language faculty assumption and the concern with ug all put c 's theoretical construct beyond the ken of most experimental or empirical psychologist . ( 4 ) biology . it would interest to know if * any * evolutionary biologist have take up c 's view or try to explain how they could be investigate . again , his view often get mention in general introduction . . . but only to be reject . ( 5 ) cognitive science . as gardner show in " the mind 's new science " , c be a source of inspiration . consequently he be cite very frequently in cognitive science literature . again , however , it be his formal , comptuational approach - not his genuinely linguistic work - that be refer to . so , although c be view as a founder of cognitive science , his current theory of grammar have have no real impact on the field . in general , it seem that most people outside of linguistics know of chomsky as he appear in " aspect " and in the non-technical part of " knowledge of language " . it 's surely a safe bet that almost no non-linguist follow him into " government and bind " . - philip swann