Which came first, grammatical rules or their exceptions? In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Morten Christiansen, professor of psychology, writes that for decades, linguists bet on rules – but disorder and flux may turn out to be language’s most essential traits.
“Language is a curious mix of order and disorder,” Christiansen writes in the piece with co-author Nick Chater. “All 7,000 of the world’s languages are characterized by elegant rules, quasi regularities and strange inconsistencies. So which came first, the order or the disorder? Answering this question turns out to be crucial to understanding how language works.”
Simon Wheeler, Cornell University
Cornell Provost Kavita Bala speaking with Kalaniyot Sabbatical Scholar Naomi Havron at the Kalaniyot reception Oct. 19. In the background, Kalaniyot Fellow Eden Eran Nagar speaks with Fellow Shachar Yerushalmi.
Ryan Young/Cornell University
Seidenberger built Hopper from scratch so students can see the logic on which it is built and play a role in developing it and improving it over the course of his class.
