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.”
Ryan Young/Cornell University
Semiconductors are at the core of the economy and national security. Their importance makes them a target. Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, discusses how Cornell is helping to keep the semiconductor supply chain safe.
A party in the Temple of Zeus for retiring Zeus manager, Lydia Dutton. Left to right: A.R. Ammons, Cecil Giscombe, Dutton, David Burak, Phyllis Janowitz, James McConkey and Tony Caputi.
