Why are there different languages? A common explanation is that different languages arise
from the gradual accumulation of random changes. Here, we argue that, beyond these …

Count data is prevalent in many different areas of linguistics, such as when counting words,
syntactic constructions, discourse particles, case markers, or speech errors. The Poisson …

Statistics for Linguists: An Introduction Using R is the first statistics textbook on linear models
for linguistics. The book covers simple uses of linear models through generalized models to …

The bouba/kiki effect—the association of the nonce word bouba with a round shape and kiki
with a spiky shape—is a type of correspondence between speech sounds and visual …

Memory is fleeting. New material rapidly obliterates previous material. How, then, can the
brain deal successfully with the continual deluge of linguistic input? We argue that, to deal …

Many recent proposals claim that languages adapt to their environments. The linguistic
niche hypothesis claims that languages with numerous native speakers and substantial …

Understanding worldwide patterns of language diversity has long been a goal for
evolutionary scientists, linguists and philosophers. Research over the past decade has …

We propose that languages (and seemingly our language capabilities) evolved gradually as
a result of being engaged in an active feedback loop with human self-domestication. Our …

A previous study by Chen demonstrates a correlation between languages that grammatically
mark future events and their speakers' propensity to save, even after controlling for …

The underlying structures that are common to the world's languages bear an intriguing
connection with early emerging forms of “core knowledge”(Spelke & Kinzler, 2007), which …