Sarah, "the world's smartest chimp," died in July 2019, just before her 60th birthday. For the majority of her life she served as a research subject, providing scientists with a window into the thoughts of homo sapiens' nearest ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 6, 2019
0
19
When we speak, our sentences emerge as a flowing stream of sound. Unless we are really annoyed, We. Don't. Speak. One. Word. At. A. Time. But this property of speech is not how language itself is organized. Sentences consist ...
Social Sciences
Sep 3, 2019
0
24
Communication gestures used by humans and our primate relatives are providing clues about how our species' ability to use spoken language evolved.
Evolution
Aug 20, 2019
0
175
Why do languages sound so different when people across the world have roughly the same speech organs (mouth, lips, tongue and jaw)? Does the shape of our vocal tract explain some of the variation in speech sounds? In extreme ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 19, 2019
0
259
Most children learn that written numbers represent quantities in pre-school or junior primary school.
Plants & Animals
Jun 5, 2019
0
11
If you hear someone say "John and Mary kiss," you'd likely imagine a single symmetrical action. But hear them say "John and Mary kiss each other," and you may construe an entirely different picture—one in which the parties ...
Social Sciences
May 30, 2019
0
538
Is English "weird"? Many of us might feel this is true when we're trying to explain the complex spelling rules of the language, or the meanings of idioms such as "it's raining cats and dogs" to someone who is learning English. ...
Social Sciences
Apr 12, 2019
4
116
Computing with words is a computational method where the objects of computation are words and propositions drawn from a natural language rather than the ones and zeroes of binary. Computing with words is perhaps what makes ...
Machine learning & AI
Apr 3, 2019
0
5
For decades, MIT has been widely held to have one of the best linguistics programs in the world. But what is linguistics and what does it teach us about human language? To learn more about the ways linguists help make a better ...
Social Sciences
Mar 28, 2019
0
599
The human capacity for language divides our species from the rest of the animal kingdom. Language has not only allowed us to conquer all corners of the globe, but to devise writing, mathematics and all things thereafter.
Archaeology
Mar 15, 2019
0
40
