New paper links ancient drawings and the origins of language
When and where did humans develop language? To find out, look deep inside caves, suggests an MIT professor.
Archaeology
Feb 21, 2018
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Page 12 - News tagged with human languages
Using AI to uncover the mystery of Voynich manuscript
Computing scientists at the University of Alberta are using artificial intelligence to decipher an ancient manuscript.
Computer Sciences
Jan 29, 2018
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Do birdsong and human speech share biological roots?
Do songbirds and humans have common biological hardwiring that shapes how they produce and perceive sounds?
Plants & Animals
Nov 22, 2017
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262
Two brain regions interact to help finches know when and how to tailor their songs for specific situations
Researchers at UC San Francisco have shown how the Bengalese finch, a domesticated songbird, can learn to tweak its song in specific ways depending on context, which could shed light on how the human brain learns to apply ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 16, 2017
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Chimp study reveals how brain's structure shaped our evolution
The pattern of asymmetry in human brains could be a unique feature of our species and may hold the key to explaining how we first developed language ability, experts say.
Evolution
Nov 15, 2017
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4
Evolutionary biology can help us understand how language works
As a linguist I dread the question, "what do you do?", because when I answer "I'm a linguist" the inevitable follow-up question is: "How many languages do you speak?" That, of course, is not the point. While learning languages ...
Social Sciences
Oct 10, 2017
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132
The 'myth' of language history: Languages do not share a single history
The 'myth' of language history: languages do not share a single history but different components evolve along different trajectories and at different rates.A large-scale study of Pacific languages reveals that forces driving ...
Social Sciences
Oct 2, 2017
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Our ability to recognise letters could be hard-wired into our brains
Back in the 1960s, the linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky claimed that the human brain is hardwired with an innate understanding of language. This became known as the Universal Grammar theory, and was offered as ...
Social Sciences
Sep 14, 2017
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Humans learn complex grammatical patterns even in extremely challenging circumstances
A large-scale study of languages shows that the grammar of creoles - which emerged in multilingual situations of extreme social upheaval, like colonial slaveries - are composed from the grammars of other languages that preceded ...
Social Sciences
Sep 5, 2017
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259
Cognitive scientist calls for integration in language sciences
In a new opinion piece in a major publication, Morten Christiansen, professor of psychology, describes how the study of language has fragmented into many highly-specialized areas of study that tend not to talk to each other. ...
Social Sciences
Aug 1, 2017
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