Could birdsong help us solve stuttering?
New CSAIL genomics work suggests vocalizing birds could tell us more about speech disorders.
Unboxing the Chomsky Archive
A new website offers a glimpse at a lifetime of work, and the chance to support it.
Said and Done for October 2014
Digest of the MIT humanities, arts, and social sciences features a Nobel Prize, a new professorship in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, three new SHASS websites, and more.
MIT linguist Danny Fox named Anshen-Chomsky Professor of Language and Thought
Research illuminates both language and the mind itself.
Essays in English yield information about other languages
Grammatical habits in written English reveal linguistic features of non-native speakers’ languages.
Try, try again? Study says no
Neuroscientists find that trying harder makes it more difficult to learn some aspects of language.
When it comes to numbers, culture counts
In a Bolivian rainforest society, children learn to count just like in the U.S., but on a delayed timetable.
From contemporary syntax to human language’s deep origins
New paper amplifies hypothesis that human language builds on birdsong and speech forms of other primates.
Cold case: A linguistic mystery yields clues in Russian
MIT professor’s new book explains how the quirks of Russian numerals can tell us something deep about the universal properties of grammar.
Five from MIT named AAAS fellows
The professors were recognized by their peers for their efforts to advance science or its applications.
Linguistic puzzler
Graduate student Rafael Nonato travels to the fringes of the Amazon rainforest to explore the Brazilian native language of the Kĩsêdjê.