Michael Silverstein
Michael Silverstein’s contributions to anthropology, linguistics and psychology range from modeling the flow of socially effective meanings during verbal interaction to the way language is a focus of...
View ArticleLanguage may be dominant social marker for young children
Children’s reasoning about language and race can take unexpected turns, according to University of Chicago researchers, who found that for younger white children in particular, language can loom...
View ArticleIslamist Movements in South Asia
Journalist Ahmed Rashid and professor Ebrahim Moosa discuss the often overlooked social and political context of Islamist movements in South Asia. Rashid examines recent political developments in the...
View ArticleThinking in a foreign language helps economic decision-making
In a study with implications for businesspeople in a global economy, researchers at the University of Chicago have found that people make more rational decisions when they think through a problem in a...
View ArticleThe Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture 2014
The Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture 2014 at the University of Chicago featured John A. Goldsmith, the Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Linguistics and Computer...
View ArticleUChicago students win 11 Critical Language Scholarships from State Department
The U.S. Department of State has awarded Critical Language Scholarships to 11 UChicago students who will spend the summer learning languages overseas. These highly competitive scholarships pay all...
View ArticleLinguists tackle computational analysis of grammar
Children don’t have to be told that “cat” and “cats” are variants of the same word—they pick it up just by listening. To a computer, though, they’re as different as, well, cats and dogs. Yet it’s...
View ArticleHarper Lecture with Dana Suskind: What Difference Do 30 Million Words Make?
Before they are even one year old, infants born into poverty score lower in cognitive development than their more affluent peers. By their fourth birthday, these children will have heard, on average,...
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