ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the limits and idealizations which Chomsky says are essential if his enterprise is to succeed. It looks at the limitations of Chomsky's linguistics: how Chomsky has to idealize in order to build an explanatory theory of language. The chapter mentions the passive rule, which is another transformation, though a rather more complex one than particle movement. People are so constituted that they would be incapable of learning language in a homogeneous speech community: variability or inconsistency of presented evidence is a necessary condition for language learning. The chapter shows a number of idealizations and limitations which Chomsky insists are necessary for his approach to linguistics to have a chance of success. It concludes by looking at the question of idealization in more general terms. Generative grammar is not biased towards the speaker or the hearer of language, and assumes perfect knowledge of the language.
