Code of the humans
New book by Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick explores how people acquired unique language skills.
Four MIT faculty elected 2015 AAAS Fellows
Berggren, Bertschinger, Fink, and Zue are among those recognized for efforts toward advancing science.
What counts as fair?
Neuroscientists find that children’s ability to count is key to distributing resources based on merit.
Learning spoken language
System learns to distinguish words’ phonetic components, without human annotation of training data.
Sabine Iatridou and Kai von Fintel named fellows of the Linguistics Society of America
Fellowship marks the highest honor in the field of linguistics.
How language gives your brain a break
Study: In dozens of languages, words that work together stay together.
3 Questions: Michel DeGraff on Haiti’s new policy for teaching in Kreyòl
MIT scholar, and advocate of native-language instruction, backs linguistic change.
Donca Steriade: Searching for the building blocks of language
The most comprehensive survey of rhyme ever made reveals a new possibility for one of the essential units of language.
The rapid rise of human language
New paper suggests people quickly started speaking in a now-familiar form.
Decoding the meaning of language
Linguist Kai von Fintel engages in research at the intersection of science and the humanities.
Could birdsong help us solve stuttering?
New CSAIL genomics work suggests vocalizing birds could tell us more about speech disorders.
How information moves between cultures
Networks that map strength of connections between languages predict global influence of their speakers.
Neuroscientists identify key role of language gene
Mutation that arose long ago may be key to humans’ unique ability to produce and understand speech.
A new leadership model for a new Haiti
Prime minister and cabinet members attend leadership workshop with MIT professors.