While I respect (some of Chomsky's work) it is amazing to me that he thinks language is something more than mathematics/statistics. Language is math, it is basically an advanced form of discreet mathematics. We can reproduce virtually anything on a computer, and it is no more "shallow" than artificial light from a lightbulb is "artificial." There is no magic going on, we are biological computers, walking number crunchers. Our brains just happen to operate with chemicals and analog signals, rather than transistors and digital signals. His view on this carries the drawbacks of academia, which has a tendency to over-complicate and over-formalize thinking.