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Ancient grammatical puzzle solved after 2,500 years

15 Dec 2022

A grammatical problem which has defeated Sanskrit scholars since the 5th Century BC has finally been solved by an Indian PhD student at Cambridge...

Winston Churchill’s famous Battle of Britain address, adapted here for a wartime poster, is one example of a remnant of the Verb Second constraint in English, which could hint at the existence of a universal grammar.

“Never was so much owed by so many to so few”: Could phrases like this hold clues about universal grammar?

16 Dec 2015

A new research project examining a linguistic construction called the Verb Second constraint could, academics believe, help to explain how people...

Terence, Andria, translated by Maurice Kyffin (London, 1588)

… dot, dot, dot: how the ellipsis made its mark

21 Oct 2015

We avoid them in formal writing but they pepper our emails … In 'Ellipsis in English Literature', Dr Anne Toner explores the history of dots, dashes...

Extract from the New Testament in Syriac from the sixth century

The riddle of the Syriac double dot: it’s the world’s earliest question mark

21 Jul 2011

Manuscripts written in Syriac, an ancient language of the Middle East, are peppered with mysterious dots. Among them is the vertical double dot or...

grammar

Ancient grammatical puzzle solved after 2,500 years

“Never was so much owed by so many to so few”: Could phrases like this hold clues about universal grammar?

… dot, dot, dot: how the ellipsis made its mark

The riddle of the Syriac double dot: it’s the world’s earliest question mark

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grammar

Topic description and stories

Ancient grammatical puzzle solved after 2,500 years

“Never was so much owed by so many to so few”: Could phrases like this hold clues about universal grammar?

… dot, dot, dot: how the ellipsis made its mark

The riddle of the Syriac double dot: it’s the world’s earliest question mark

Connect with us

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge