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…

10 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…

10 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…

10 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…

10 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.…

10 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…

10 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…

10 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…

10 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…

10 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…

10 months ago

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