Many linguists have proposed that languages spoken by numerous non-native speakers tend to have simpler grammars. A new study challenges this claim. By analyzing a global sample of 1,314 languages, ...

How do languages balance the richness of their structures with the need for efficient communication? To investigate, researchers at the Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS) in Mannheim, ...

The global distribution of grammatical complexity (fusion). Closely related languages resemble each other's scores. Credit: Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf7704 Languages around the ...

Newcastle upon Tyne, UK This can best be answered from a broader perspective on the evolution of complex life and by understanding languages as complex, life-related systems. All life on Earth began ...

Scientists argue for a new model of language, involving the interaction of multiple brain networks. This model is much more complex than the classical neurobiological model of language, which was ...

If you’ve ever seen Monty Python’s Life of Brian, you might remember that Romanes eunt domus means “Romans go home”. Or does it? Isn’t domus the nominative? Shouldn’t we be using the dative? Or is it ...

Languages around the world differ greatly in how many grammatical distinctions they make. This variation is observable even between closely related languages. The speakers of Swedish, Danish, and ...