Generative Linguistics and Generative Theory

Generative linguistics includes a set of explanatory theories developed by Noam Chomsky in the 1960s.  It opposes the behaviourist theory and structuralism. Generative theory is distinguished from others taditions by distinguishing competence and performance, which distinguishes in the act of speech of its linguistic capacity. Thus, under this approach each speaker has a linguistic organ specialized in the analysis and production of complex structures  forming the speech. In other words, every language from an observable structure result an innate system and universally shared.