Researchers from Fudan, Harvard, and Stony Brook University used AI and statistical analysis to study the evolution of 22 languages, uncovering a universal statistical structure underlying their ...

Example of recurrent change. Still images from video dictionary entries that illustrate the phonological pattern of thumb extension. Both signs are produced with four fingers extended, but the sign ...

Linguist Anne Curzan delights in the nuances and evolution of language. She says we should embrace they/them as singular pronouns---which have actually been used for hundreds of years. Anne Curzan is ...

Scientists have identified universal grammatical rules common to hundreds of the world’s languages, an advance that points to shared thinking that shapes human communication. Linguists have long ...

For more than 150 years ago, the assumption that language is a singular event has hampered progress in explaining its evolution. Another obstacle was the failure to recognize that certain social ...