The importance of language is hard to overestimate, yet few of us are aware of the sheer breadth and diversity of language research.

Words

Our ambiguous world of words

30 May 2013
Ambiguity in language poses the greatest challenge when it comes to training a computer to understand the written word. Now, new research aims to help...
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Words

What is English?

16 May 2013
English speakers who are 18 or under use the word ‘like’ in conversation over five times as often as speakers who are over 70; ‘because’ is the most...
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Early example of the Welsh word for not (dim, line 5) in the 14th-century Mabinogion

It's 'not' history

09 Mar 2012
University of Cambridge linguists have pieced together the curious evolving history of the word 'not' across the languages of Europe. In doing so...
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Functional neuroimaging of the human brain

The communicative brain

29 Nov 2011
What is it about the human brain that makes language possible? Two evolutionary systems working together, say neuroscientists Professor William...
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Cambridge English

Testing the World’s English

15 Nov 2011
English language testing, and the research that underpins it, has been elevated to a new level by the increasing global dominance of English, now used...
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