cognition

The Sentence That Attacks Itself: Center-Embedding

The sentence "The rat the cat the dog chased ate died" is perfectly grammatical, yet it feels like a cognitive…

4 months ago

The Language of Loss: Linguistic Patterns in Dementia

Dementia does more than steal memories; it systematically unravels the very fabric of language. This post explores the specific linguistic…

4 months ago

The Limits of Truth: What Are Vague Predicates?

When does a 'heap' of sand stop being a heap after you remove one grain at a time? This is…

4 months ago

Linguistic Implicature: What We Mean, Not What We Say

Have you ever understood someone's "no" even when they didn't say the word? This is linguistic implicature, the art of…

4 months ago

Can AI Detect Irony? The Sarcasm Problem

Teaching a machine that "Oh, great" can mean the exact opposite is one of the toughest challenges in artificial intelligence.…

4 months ago

The Data Drought: Why Some Languages Are Invisible to AI

Why can AI translate French perfectly but struggles with Navajo or Swahili? The answer lies in the "data drought", a…

4 months ago

The Shape of a Word: Intro to Word Embeddings

How does a computer understand that "king" is to "queen" as "man" is to "woman"? We dive into the magic…

4 months ago

The Brain’s Filing Cabinet: What is a Lemma?

Ever had a word on the tip of your tongue? This frustrating moment is a perfect window into the brain's…

4 months ago

Linguistic Exogamy: Marrying Out to Survive

In certain Amazonian societies, there's a strict rule: you cannot marry someone who speaks your own language. This practice, known…

4 months ago

Are There Any Absolute Language Universals?

For decades, linguists have searched for features shared by all 7,000+ human languages, a quest for a "Universal Grammar." But…

4 months ago

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