A new research project is looking for evidence of “universal grammar” – the notion that humans are hard-wired to understand language from birth. A new research project is looking for evidence of ...

Eric Mack has been a CNET contributor since 2011. Eric and his family live 100% energy and water independent on his off-grid compound in the New Mexico desert. Eric uses his passion for writing about ...

Following the recent British referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU), the government has been attempting to figure out what British exit from the EU, or Brexit, actually means.

Paul Ibbotson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

Nearly 7,000 different languages are spoken across the world. But how these languages evolved has long been a source of debate. Now, a group of German researchers has uncovered exactly how language ...

This paper offers a reply to Coopmans' 1984 critique of Hawkins 1979, 1980, 1982. Hawkins had attempted, inter alia, to make typological word order universals relevant to concerns of generative ...

In my previous post, The Shape-Shifting Malleability of ‘Universals’ in Universal Grammar, I argued against the thesis that language ‘universals’, such as they are, reside in a biological ...

Humans are storytelling beings. As far as we know, no other species has the capacity for language and ability to use it in endlessly creative ways. From our earliest days, we name and describe things.

What makes language special is part of what makes us special, so understanding what language is made of and how we learn it brings us closer to our human nature. Is language special because it runs on ...