Category Archives: Language

The 10 Oldest Languages Still Spoken In The World Today

Posted on June 11, 2017 by

Language evolution is like biological evolution – it happens minutely, generation by generation, so there’s no distinct breaking point between one language and the next language that develops from it. Therefore, it’s impossible to say that one language is really … Continue reading →

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Culture shapes the Evolution of Cognition

Posted on April 6, 2016 by

A central debate in cognitive science concerns the nativist hypothesis, the proposal that universal features of behavior reflect a biologically determined cognitive substrate: For example, linguistic nativism proposes a domain-specific faculty of language that strongly constrains which languages can be … Continue reading →

Posted in Cognition, Culture, Evolution, Language, Nativism | Tagged , , , ,

On the Effects of Cultural Experience on the Brain

Posted on March 13, 2016 by

How does the brain represent number and perform mathematical calculations? According to a recent and provocative study by Tang and colleagues, it depends on which language you learn. They found that the divergent linguistic and cultural experiences of native Chinese … Continue reading →

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Dialogue and Culture

Posted on March 11, 2016 by

The volume deals with the relationship between language, dialogue, human nature and culture by focusing on an approach that considers culture to be a crucial component of dialogic interaction. Part I refers to the so-called ‘language instinct debate’ between nativists … Continue reading →

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The Language Instinct – The New Science of Language and Mind

Posted on March 11, 2016 by

Language is so tightly woven into human experience that it is scarcely possible to imagine life without it. Chances are that if you find two or more people together anywhere on earth, they will soon be exchanging words. When there … Continue reading →

Posted in Conversations, Culture, Dialogue, Humans, Instinct, Intelligence, Interaction, Language, Mind | Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Language, Culture, Cognition – How Do They Intersect?

Posted on March 5, 2016 by

This chapter approaches the question of how languages shape cognition in terms of language use and examines differences in the accessibility of specific linguistic categories across different languages. Here we take a position espoused by Kay. He points out that … Continue reading →

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Music, Language, and the Brain

Posted on February 14, 2016 by

In the first comprehensive study of the relationship between music and language from the standpoint of cognitive neuroscience, Aniruddh D. Patel challenges the widespread belief that music and language are processed independently. Since Plato’s time, the relationship between music and … Continue reading →

Posted in Brains, Creative mind, Creativity, Culture, Language, Music | Tagged , , , , ,

On the Hegemonic English in a Neoliberal Information Economy

Posted on February 13, 2016 by

Without words, what do we have? From language, we define what is possible—what we think, who we talk to, what we do, and where we go. Language is more than a vessel for thought. It communicates our identity and status … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural capital, Culture, English, Hegemony, Language, Neoliberalism | Tagged , , , , ,