Linguistics

"Song of the Human" made its world premiere at the Winter Garden in New York City. Discovering MIT Professor Shigeru Miyagawa’s research on birdsong was “validating and inspiring,” creator Pete Wyer says.

"Song of the Human": An origin story

New work by composer Pete M. Wyer draws inspiration from MIT linguistic scholar Shigeru Miyagawa's hypothesis on the origins of human language.

December 13, 2016

The creative "Stata-o'-lantern" honors MIT's iconic Stata Center.

Scene at MIT: Stata-o'-lantern

October 27, 2016

Norvin Richards, professor of linguistics at MIT, and the cover of his new book, “Contiguity Theory,” recently published by the MIT Press.

Sound system

In new book, Norvin Richards explores how our voices shape the rules of grammar.

September 20, 2016

QS ranks MIT the world’s top university for 2016-17

Ranked No. 1 for the fifth straight year, the Institute also places first in 12 of 42 disciplines.

September 5, 2016

English is the most used language on the Internet, and globally most of the people who speak or write in English are non-native speakers. A new database of annotated English sentences written by non-native speakers could help improve how computers handle the spoken or written language of non-native English speakers.

First major database of non-native English

Resource could yield linguistic insights, practical applications for non-native English speakers.

July 29, 2016

A unique reflection of MIT's Building 32, the Ray and Maria Stata Center

Scene at MIT: Reflections on Stata

June 29, 2016

“Children seem to interpret disjunction like conjunction,” observes MIT Linguistics Professor Danny Fox. However, Fox adds, although “it has been claimed children are very different from adults in the interpretation of logical words,” the study’s larger implication is almost the opposite — namely that “the child is [otherwise] identical to the adult, but there is a very small paramet...

Why children confuse simple words

Study: Kids have “and/or” problem despite sophisticated reasoning.

May 23, 2016

QS World University Rankings rates MIT No. 1 in 12 subjects for 2016

MIT ranked within the top 5 globally for 19 of 42 subject areas.

April 8, 2016

The Pirahã reside along the Maici River, which branches off the Amazon in Brazil. MIT researchers are now making public the most extensive data set yet accumulated on the Pirahã language.

Bringing more data to language debate

Larger set of translations may shed light on an idiosyncratic Amazonian language.

March 9, 2016

“Why Only Us: Language and Evolution” (MIT Press), by Robert C. Berwick (top left) and Noam Chomsky (bottom left)

Code of the humans

New book by Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick explores how people acquired unique language skills.

March 1, 2016

The SHASS Research Fund supports MIT research in the humanities, arts, or social sciences that shows promise of making an important contribution to the proposed area of activity.

Ten MIT-SHASS Research Fund recipients announced for 2016

January 25, 2016

“There’s no way we can solve anything if we’re not actually speaking to each other,” says senior Alyssa Napier, a chemistry major and linguistics minor.

Senior Alyssa Napier dedicates herself to improving MIT

Chemistry major works to address social justice issues.

December 1, 2015

"Kreyòl pale, kreyòl konprann," by artist cooperative Kalfou Richès, was a gift to the MIT-Haiti Initiative. The title translates to: “When Kreyòl is spoken, Kreyòl speakers understand.”

Haitian educators and MIT faculty develop Kreyòl-based teaching tools

Project led by linguist Michel DeGraff is revolutionizing education in Haiti, and serving as a model for similar projects around the world.

October 7, 2015

Shigeru Miyagawa, professor of linguistics and the Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at MIT

Innovative humanities MOOC, “Visualizing Japan,” nominated for the Japan Prize

In a Q&A, course co-founder Professor Shigeru Miyagawa discusses his unique online course and its impact on digital education.

September 25, 2015

Hundreds of MIT students explore fields at the 2015 TOUR de SHASS

Academic expo connects students with MIT-SHASS faculty and courses.

September 16, 2015

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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