I give Chomsky all the credit he is due. His system is marvelous
   and he single-handedly promoted his system above competitors -
   AND it mapped *so well* to the advent of first generation
   computers and AI in the 60s, that he's hard to beat.

   At the same time, I'm more a Lakoff fan. Chomsky killed Lakoff
   in early debates and won over the hearts of academics and newly
   minted computerphiles, as Lakoff worked fine with or without a
   computer and it was boring in comparison.

   It took Lakoff almost two decades to recover and then in the
   late 1970s, slowly began his rise.

   Chomsky rose with the advent of computers. Lakoff, with the rise
   of post logical positivist deconstructionalism.