Campus WATERLOO - Jun 2
Outstanding student researchers recognized with Governor General's Gold Medal
Outstanding student researchers recognized with Governor General's Gold Medal
Environment - Jun 2
Berkeley Talks transcript: Climate grief: Embracing loss as a catalyst for regeneration
Berkeley Talks transcript: Climate grief: Embracing loss as a catalyst for regeneration
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Linguistics / Literature - 04.05.2023 
New database offers insight into consequences of language loss
Grambank, a database of 2,467 languages that Yale linguist Claire Bowern helped create, helps researchers better understand the stakes when languages die off. Languages, like animal species, can go extinct. More than half of the world's approximately 7,000 signed and spoken languages are currently endangered.
Linguistics / Literature - 19.04.2023 
Grambank shows the diversity of the world’s languages
An international team has created a new database that documents patterns of grammatical variation in over 2400 of the world's languages What shapes the structure of languages? In a new study, an international team of researchers reports that grammatical structure is highly flexible across languages, shaped by common ancestry, constraints on cognition and usage, and language contact.
Linguistics / Literature - 03.03.2023
History / Archeology - Linguistics / Literature - 07.02.2023
Pedagogy - Linguistics / Literature - 02.02.2023
Innovation - Linguistics / Literature - 01.02.2023
Life Sciences - Linguistics / Literature - 21.11.2022 
Genes and tongues are not always tied together
A global database helps explore the complex history of our genes and languages Does the history of our languages match the history of our genes? Charles Darwin thought yes, others said no. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the University of Zurich and Harvard University has put together GeLaTo, a global database linking linguistic and genetic data.
Linguistics / Literature - 03.11.2022
Linguistics / Literature - History / Archeology - 14.10.2022 
New edition of the Mesopotamian classic Epic of Gilgamesh , by two IPOA lecturers
Cultura Researchers Adelina Millet and Lluís Feliu, members of the Institute of Ancient Near East Studies (IPOA) of the University of Barcelona, have published a new edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh , the oldest literary epic and a classic in universal literature. Recent archaeological findings led to an update of the Epic, of which a first edition was published in Catalan in 2007.
Linguistics / Literature - 27.09.2022 
The first Camilo José Cela manuscript, found
Cultura The manuscript is the collection of poems Pisando la dudosa luz del día , which Camilo José Cela wrote from November 1 to 11, 1936, driven by the death of his girlfriend in tragic circumstances, victim of the bombings of the first major siege of Franco's troops in Madrid, to which he would later enlist.
Linguistics / Literature - 20.09.2022 
Privacy gaps in Apple’s data collection scheme revealed
Researchers have demonstrated how Apple's use of a widely adopted data protection model could expose individuals to privacy attacks. By investigating Apple's use of the model, called local differential privacy (LDP), the researchers found that individuals' preferred emoji skin tone and political leanings could be inferred from the company's data.
Linguistics / Literature - History / Archeology - 24.06.2022 
Scientists apply genetic methods to linguistics
Scientists have produced a series of maps showing historical migration events, including the migration of mountain farmers native to Upper Valais who began to settle in German-speaking Switzerland in the 13th century, by applying methods from population genetics - but using linguistic data rather than genes.
Computer Science - Linguistics / Literature - 16.06.2022 
Shedding light on linguistic diversity and its evolution
Linguists and computer scientists collaborate to publish a large global Open Access lexical database Scholars from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and the University of Auckland in New Zealand have created a new global repository of linguistic data. The project is designed to facilitate new insights into the evolution of words and sounds of the languages spoken across the world today.
Linguistics / Literature - 05.05.2022 
Significant Decrease in Willingness to Donate Blood During Corona Pandemic
Current calls for blood donations highlight the urgent need for blood. A new study at Universität Hamburg shows that the willingness to donate blood has dramatically decreased throughout the pandemic. The findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE. Even before the corona pandemic, there were repeated blood drives to meet urgent needs.
Linguistics / Literature - 05.05.2022 
How our brain influences language change
Changes of speech sounds during the Middle Ages shed light on how we process language Our language is changing constantly. Researchers of the University of Vienna found that, over centuries, frequently occurring speech sound patterns get even more frequent. The reason for this development is that our brain can perceive, process and learn frequent, and thus prototypical sound patterns more easily than less frequent ones.
Life Sciences - Linguistics / Literature - 03.03.2022
Campus - Linguistics / Literature - 14.02.2022 
Virgil has the edge on Shakespeare in helping students to love literature
Students who study Virgil's Aeneid at school find it significantly more engaging than other 'high-prestige' literature, even though they only learn tiny fragments of the text, research suggests. Ultimately, if this is high-level poetry that students actually like, perhaps we ought to be finding ways to give them the chance to do it Frances Foster The finding comes from a limited study with three groups of 15 and 16-year-old state school students taking Latin GCSE, and raises the possibility that there may be a case for expanding ancient literature's use in the wider curriculum.
Linguistics / Literature - 20.01.2022 
’Rough’ words feature a trill sound in languages around the globe - study
In languages spoken around the world, words describing rough surfaces are highly likely to feature a 'trilled /r/' sound - a linguistic pattern that stretches back over 6,000 years, a new study reveals. Language scientists first analysed words for 'rough' and 'smooth' in a worldwide sample of 332 spoken languages - discovering a strong link between the sounds of speech and the sense of touch, which has influenced the structure of modern languages.
Linguistics / Literature - 16.11.2021 
Perceptual links between sound and shape may unlock origins of spoken words
Most people around the world agree that the made-up word 'bouba' sounds round in shape, and the made-up word 'kiki' sounds pointy - a discovery that may help to explain how spoken languages develop, according to a new study. Language scientists have discovered that this effect exists independently of the language that a person speaks or the writing system that they use, and it could be a clue to the origins of spoken words.
Life Sciences - Linguistics / Literature - 19.08.2021 
What If Our History Was Written In Our Grammar?
Humans have been always on the move, creating a complex history of languages and cultural traditions dispersed over the globe. An international team under UZH's lead has now traced families of related languages over more than 10,000 years by combining data from genetics, linguistics and musicology using novel digital methods.
Linguistics/Literature
Results 1 - 20 of 156.
Grambank, a database of 2,467 languages that Yale linguist Claire Bowern helped create, helps researchers better understand the stakes when languages die off. Languages, like animal species, can go extinct. More than half of the world's approximately 7,000 signed and spoken languages are currently endangered.
An international team has created a new database that documents patterns of grammatical variation in over 2400 of the world's languages What shapes the structure of languages? In a new study, an international team of researchers reports that grammatical structure is highly flexible across languages, shaped by common ancestry, constraints on cognition and usage, and language contact.
Large language models are biased. Can logic help save them?
MIT researchers trained logic-aware language models to reduce harmful stereotypes like gender and racial biases. Close Turns out, even language models "think" they're biased. When prompted in ChatGPT, the response was as follows: "Yes, language models can have biases, because the training data reflects the biases present in society from which that data was collected.
MIT researchers trained logic-aware language models to reduce harmful stereotypes like gender and racial biases. Close Turns out, even language models "think" they're biased. When prompted in ChatGPT, the response was as follows: "Yes, language models can have biases, because the training data reflects the biases present in society from which that data was collected.
Seven NWO Open Competition grants for UU Humanities scholars
Seven Utrecht University Humanities scholars have been awarded a grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in the Open Competition SGW programme.
Seven Utrecht University Humanities scholars have been awarded a grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in the Open Competition SGW programme.
Can Codified Gestures Help Language Learners Master Grammar Rules?
New study by a researcher in English didactics at Freie Universität Berlin shows that the use of hand gestures in English lessons can improve language retention A recent study from the Institute of English Language and Literature at Freie Universität Berlin has shown that using codified gestures as a teaching method may make it easier for children and adolescents to understand the grammar rules of a foreign language.
New study by a researcher in English didactics at Freie Universität Berlin shows that the use of hand gestures in English lessons can improve language retention A recent study from the Institute of English Language and Literature at Freie Universität Berlin has shown that using codified gestures as a teaching method may make it easier for children and adolescents to understand the grammar rules of a foreign language.
The Neology Observatory at UPF launches Garbell, a digital tool that evaluates words that are not in the dictionary
Garbell, developed at the Neology Observatory at Pompeu Fabra University, within the framework of the Research Program of the Catalan Studies Institute, analyses words that are not in the standard dictionary but we use on a daily basis and tells us if they are more or less dictionarizable. This technological tool is the first in the world capable of making this assessment and could inspire similar tools for other languages.
Garbell, developed at the Neology Observatory at Pompeu Fabra University, within the framework of the Research Program of the Catalan Studies Institute, analyses words that are not in the standard dictionary but we use on a daily basis and tells us if they are more or less dictionarizable. This technological tool is the first in the world capable of making this assessment and could inspire similar tools for other languages.
A global database helps explore the complex history of our genes and languages Does the history of our languages match the history of our genes? Charles Darwin thought yes, others said no. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the University of Zurich and Harvard University has put together GeLaTo, a global database linking linguistic and genetic data.
Cultura Researchers Adelina Millet and Lluís Feliu, members of the Institute of Ancient Near East Studies (IPOA) of the University of Barcelona, have published a new edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh , the oldest literary epic and a classic in universal literature. Recent archaeological findings led to an update of the Epic, of which a first edition was published in Catalan in 2007.
Cultura The manuscript is the collection of poems Pisando la dudosa luz del día , which Camilo José Cela wrote from November 1 to 11, 1936, driven by the death of his girlfriend in tragic circumstances, victim of the bombings of the first major siege of Franco's troops in Madrid, to which he would later enlist.
Researchers have demonstrated how Apple's use of a widely adopted data protection model could expose individuals to privacy attacks. By investigating Apple's use of the model, called local differential privacy (LDP), the researchers found that individuals' preferred emoji skin tone and political leanings could be inferred from the company's data.
Scientists have produced a series of maps showing historical migration events, including the migration of mountain farmers native to Upper Valais who began to settle in German-speaking Switzerland in the 13th century, by applying methods from population genetics - but using linguistic data rather than genes.
Linguists and computer scientists collaborate to publish a large global Open Access lexical database Scholars from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and the University of Auckland in New Zealand have created a new global repository of linguistic data. The project is designed to facilitate new insights into the evolution of words and sounds of the languages spoken across the world today.
Current calls for blood donations highlight the urgent need for blood. A new study at Universität Hamburg shows that the willingness to donate blood has dramatically decreased throughout the pandemic. The findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE. Even before the corona pandemic, there were repeated blood drives to meet urgent needs.
Changes of speech sounds during the Middle Ages shed light on how we process language Our language is changing constantly. Researchers of the University of Vienna found that, over centuries, frequently occurring speech sound patterns get even more frequent. The reason for this development is that our brain can perceive, process and learn frequent, and thus prototypical sound patterns more easily than less frequent ones.
Unable to recognise rhythm or pitch: this is amusia
Not being able to recognise a well-known melody without the lyrics, not hearing whether someone is singing out of tune and not being able to produce a rhythm; for some people musicality is not their strongest point. For a small section of the population, this inability goes very far: they suffer from the disorder congenital amusia.
Not being able to recognise a well-known melody without the lyrics, not hearing whether someone is singing out of tune and not being able to produce a rhythm; for some people musicality is not their strongest point. For a small section of the population, this inability goes very far: they suffer from the disorder congenital amusia.
Students who study Virgil's Aeneid at school find it significantly more engaging than other 'high-prestige' literature, even though they only learn tiny fragments of the text, research suggests. Ultimately, if this is high-level poetry that students actually like, perhaps we ought to be finding ways to give them the chance to do it Frances Foster The finding comes from a limited study with three groups of 15 and 16-year-old state school students taking Latin GCSE, and raises the possibility that there may be a case for expanding ancient literature's use in the wider curriculum.
In languages spoken around the world, words describing rough surfaces are highly likely to feature a 'trilled /r/' sound - a linguistic pattern that stretches back over 6,000 years, a new study reveals. Language scientists first analysed words for 'rough' and 'smooth' in a worldwide sample of 332 spoken languages - discovering a strong link between the sounds of speech and the sense of touch, which has influenced the structure of modern languages.
Most people around the world agree that the made-up word 'bouba' sounds round in shape, and the made-up word 'kiki' sounds pointy - a discovery that may help to explain how spoken languages develop, according to a new study. Language scientists have discovered that this effect exists independently of the language that a person speaks or the writing system that they use, and it could be a clue to the origins of spoken words.
Humans have been always on the move, creating a complex history of languages and cultural traditions dispersed over the globe. An international team under UZH's lead has now traced families of related languages over more than 10,000 years by combining data from genetics, linguistics and musicology using novel digital methods.
Campus WATERLOO - Jun 2
Outstanding student researchers recognized with Governor General's Gold Medal
Outstanding student researchers recognized with Governor General's Gold Medal
Environment - Jun 2
Berkeley Talks transcript: Climate grief: Embracing loss as a catalyst for regeneration
Berkeley Talks transcript: Climate grief: Embracing loss as a catalyst for regeneration