> I tend to think of the above research programme of Chomsky as falling
> more under a theory of mind with attention to language. Thoughts?
On the right track, but I would have said C's program was more modest than that. "Theory of mind" is a very large topic. C's somewhat smaller (but still rather ambitious) program was to characterize the human language faculty -- just one component among many of "mind", if you want to talk in those terms. What are the formal constraints (if any) on possible human languages? What enables us to learn a language and develop internal rules of grammar when we're surrounded by fragmentary and ungrammatical utterances as we grow up? Chomsky had the notion that these two questions were related.
The language-acquisition problem was central to C's research program from the beginning. He never did any empirical primary investigation of the topic himself -- anybody who knew C. even slightly would smile at the thought of him spending long hours with small children, recording their utterances -- but the late and much-missed Carol Chomsky certainly did.
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Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org