Language sciences

Topic description and stories

̽��ֱ��importance of language is hard to overestimate, yet few of us are aware of the sheer breadth and diversity of language research.

Conversations by Steve McClanahan via Flickr

Speakers of two dialects may share cognitive advantage with speakers of two languages

27 Apr 2016

̽��ֱ��ability of children to speak any two dialects – two closely related varieties of the same language – may confer the same cognitive advantages as...

Cambridge to explore benefits of multilingualism with new AHRC research project

22 Mar 2016

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is to launch a major new research project to study the benefits of multilingualism to individuals and society, and...

AI crossword-solving application could make machines better at understanding language

07 Mar 2016

A web-based machine language system solves crossword puzzles far better than commercially-available products, and may help machines better understand...

Winston Churchill’s famous Battle of Britain address, adapted here for a wartime poster, is one example of a remnant of the Verb Second constraint in English, which could hint at the existence of a universal grammar.

“Never was so much owed by so many to so few”: Could phrases like this hold clues about universal grammar?

16 Dec 2015

A new research project examining a linguistic construction called the Verb Second constraint could, academics believe, help to explain how people...

Computer tutor

17 Jun 2015

Millions of English language tests are taken each year by non-native English speakers. Researchers at Cambridge’s ALTA Institute are building ‘...

"Maccari-Cicero" by Cesare Maccari. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Understanding the ancient world through language

22 May 2015

James Clackson's new book looks at what language use can tell us about ancient societies.

" ̽��ֱ��Professor is World Cup": understanding ‘secret’ urban languages

22 Apr 2015

Research into a ‘playful’ and increasingly popular urban language that grew out of the necessity for criminals to hide their true intent could help...

Presence or absence of early language delay alters anatomy of the brain in autism

23 Sep 2014

Individual differences in early language development, and in later language functioning, are associated with changes in the anatomy of the brain in...

Economic success drives language extinction

03 Sep 2014

Thriving economies are the biggest factor in the disappearance of minority languages and conservation should focus on the most developed countries...

Before there was powerpoint [insect convention presentation], Credit: Woodleywonderworks

Why teach oracy?

01 Sep 2014

In this article, Professor of Education Neil Mercer argues that ‘talk’ needs tuition; state schools must teach spoken language skills for the sake of...

Areas highlighted in red on the right and left brain hemispheres show the frontal and temporal brain networks involved in the processing of linguistic information in intonation

Tuning into the melody of speech

15 Oct 2013

In a groundbreaking new study, Cambridge researchers have mapped out the neurobiological basis of a key aspect of human communication: intonation.

Noises off: the machine that rubs out noise

02 Oct 2013

Future hearing aids could be adjusted by the wearer to remove background noise using new technology that could also be used to clean up and search...

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