The overwhelming majority of modern research in linguistics takes a predominantly synchronic perspective (focusing on language at a particular point in time), and a great deal of it—partly owing to the influence of Noam Chomsky—aims at formulating theories of the cognitive processing of language.
Silna većina modernih istraživanja u lingvistici uzima predominantno sinkronu perspektivu (fokusirajući se na jezik u određenoj točki u vremenu), a veći dio njih—djelomično zahvaljujući utjecaju Noama Chomskog—imaju za cilj formuliranje teorija kognitivnog procesiranja jezika.