Invited by the University of Siena, Noam Chomsky spent the month

of November 1999 at the Certosa di Pontignano, a fourteenth-century

monastery and now a research facility of the University. It was an extraordinarily

intenseandexcitingmonth,inwhichfacultyandstudents

of the University of Siena had a unique opportunity to come in close

contact with different aspects of Chomsky’s work, discuss science

and politics with him, exchange and sharpen ideas and projects, and

interact with him in many ways. The texts collected in this volume are

related to activities that took place in connection with this visit.

The first chapter provides an introduction to some basic concepts

of linguistic theory and to some elements of the history of the

field which are crucial for understanding certain theoretical questions

addressed in the following chapters.