“We’re tired of trees”. On Deleuze and Guattari as Readers of Chomsky

Abstract

This paper reconstructs Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s philosophical critique of Chomskyan syntactic trees, centering on their “rhizome” concept as a non-hierarchical alternative. Using Antoine Culioli’s Theory of Predicative and Enunciative Operations (TOPE), it demonstrates how tools like treille structures and the notion of the langagier articulate a pragmatized syntax. This analysis clarifies the demand for trees to “form a rhizome” as a call to dissolve boundaries between syntax and pragmatics. Although Chomsky acknowledged pragmatics, a fundamental divergence persists: he maintains the autonomy of syntax, whereas Deleuze and Guattari argue for their constitutive fusion, confirming the enduring relevance of their critique.