There is no question that my love of language is an inherited trait. My father was a lay linguist, in addition to being a teacher, writer, and public intellectual. In the last few years of his life, ...

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world,” observed philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1922. We might ask, accordingly, how does language shape reality, arbitrating human experience of ...

Scientists at the University of California Berkeley used improved functional MRI resolution to show that similar neural circuits in the same regions of the brain are active when connecting language ...

Scientists say they have made an atlas of where words' meanings are located in the brain. The map shows that words are represented in different regions throughout the brain's outer layer. To make the ...

Much has been said about the remarkable ability humans have to extract meaning from language. That ability is remarkable indeed. In a split second, we perceive a spoken or written word and immediately ...

You come home after a weekend away—which of the following three scenarios fills your heart with joy? Is it: A. That the house has been deep cleaned B. That there’s a beautifully-wrapped gift lying in ...

Generative AI using large-scale language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok respond appropriately to user words just like a human. However, there is a big difference between how large-scale ...

Research shows that the arts support children’s development through visual, aural, language, and movement modes, offering a multisensory foundation for communication and learning. In early-years ...

Accuracy in word choice matters, and we appreciate hearing from you when the choices made by NPR hosts and reporters are questionable. Or wrong. John Hicks-Courant from Palm Harbor, FL, recently wrote ...