25 search results for “linguistics” in the Public website
-
Leiden hosts prestigious linguistics conference
For a brief period Leiden University was the hub of the world of linguistics. The 48th annual conference of the Societas Linguistica Europaea was held here at the start of September. Almost 600 linguists came from all corners of the world to the city of discoveries to attend this prestigious event.
-
Rita Spithoff
Faculty Governance and Global Affairs
-
Leiden Summer School connects linguists internationally
'Every year the courses are different, and there are new things to learn.' The 6th Leiden Summer School in Languages and Linguistics from 18-29 July this year has attracted 120 participants, 90 international and 30 from the Netherlands.
-
Free online linguistics course: Miracles of Human Language
Language is a little bit like owning a mobile phone. We use it all the time, but we don’t really understand how it works. Where is language located in our brain? Do all humans have language? These and many other questions will be answered by professor Marc van Oostendorp in the MOOC Miracles of Human…
-
Linguistics alumna Anne-Mieke Thieme wint EFNIL-scriptieprijs
Good news for Linguistics alumna Anne-Mieke Thieme, who has won the thesis prize awarded by the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL). ‘I emailed my thesis supervisor right away.’
-
‘Computers can give linguists a push in the right direction’
For decades, linguists have racked their brains over the question of precisely how the syntax of various languages is different. PhD candidate Martin Kroon has developed a computer system that brings us closer to finding an answer. His PhD defence is on 10 November.
-
The Linguistics Olympiad final is coming up soon: ‘The questions shouldn’t be too easy’
On Saturday 16 April, secondary school pupils will once again have a chance to sink their teeth into the hardest language-related questions during the final of the Linguistics Olympiad. Professor Sasha Lubotsky and PhD student Cid Swanenvleugel are both former Olympiad winners. Now they are involved…
-
Student Marten helped organise a MOOC: ‘It improved my knowledge of linguistics'
Master’s student of Linguistics Marten van der Meulen helped organise the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Miracles of Human Language, which ran from 30 March until 11 May 2015. What was it like for a student to organise an MOOC? And what did he learn from it?
-
Non-canonical gender systems
Grammatical gender is famously the most puzzling of the grammatical categories. We have a solid typology of gender systems, yet exciting and unexpected patterns keep turning up which defy easy classification and straightforward analysis. Some of these question, stretch or threaten to cross the outer…
-
Digging for treasure in archives: what did spoken Scots sound like?
How did Scottish speakers sound hundreds of years ago? University lecturer Mo Gordon thinks the answer to that question can be found in church archives. 'It can be a boost to your identity to know the history of your language.'
-
Alex Reuneker awarded Frans van Eemeren prize
University lecturer Alex Reuneker has won the Frans van Eemeren Prize for his paper 'Assessing classification reliability of conditionals in discourse'.
-
PhD candidate Alex Reuneker’s research: What do we mean when we use ‘if’?
‘If it rains later, then I’ll take the car.’ In order to reason, we use sentences containing ‘if’ every single day. But how does that work exactly in the Dutch language? Alex Reuneker wrote his 628 page dissertation on the subject. Ceremony on 26 January.
-
Maarten Mous: ‘Your language is part of the world’
In the new video series 'The World of Linguistics', alumni and researchers talk about their passion for their field. Professor of African Linguistics Maarten Mous explains the importance of hearing your language at school.
-
Meike de Boer: ‘The word 'uh' can help track down suspects’
In the new video series 'The World of Linguistics', alumni and researchers talk about their passion for their field. PhD candidate Meike de Boer knows everything about the word ‘uh’.
-
How language reveals what you're really saying: 'Interesting if it's language-independent'
In a conversation, you provide all sorts of information to the listener. For example, you can indicate that you're certain about something, or that you heard it through someone else. Associate Professor Jenneke van der Wal has been awarded a Vici grant to investigate whether the way people do this is…
-
Maria del Carmen Parafita Couto: ‘I have to speak to my cats in Galician’
In the new video series 'The World of Linguistics', alumni and researchers talk about their passion for their field. University lecturer Maria Del Carmen Parafita Couto speaks about bilingualism.
-
The Golden Mean of Languages; Forging Dutch and French in the Early Modern Low Countries (1540-1620)
In The Golden Mean of Languages, Alisa van de Haar sheds new light on the debates regarding the form and status of the vernacular in the early modern Low Countries, where both Dutch and French were local tongues. The fascination with the history, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary of Dutch and French…
-
Dialogue Among Cultures and Disciplines: Past, Present, and Future
Dialogue is a multi-dimensional communication mechanism whose processes can only be examined by means of an interdisciplinary approach.
-
Dutch people should stop ‘politely’ switching to English
Endangered languages can survive if they are taught properly to new speakers, such as people with a migrant background. This is what Professor by Special Appointment Felix Ameka will say in his inaugural lecture on 30 September. Dutch people can do their bit by being less ‘polite’ to people whose mother…
-
Student Aline-Priscillia: ‘I am an odd academic, I’m not very attached to outcomes’
In the new video series 'The World of Linguistics', alumni and academics talk about their passion for their field. Student Aline-Priscillia is particularly curious about how language is processed in the brain.
-
Researchers Humanities receive Veni grants
Three scholars of the Faculty of Humanities, Ahmad Al-Jallad, Thomas Fossen, and Tsolin Nalbantian, have received a Veni grant to implement their research plans over the coming years.
-
NWO grant for research about crossing language borders: ‘ We know very little about how multilingualism works outside Western societies’
Professor Felix Ameka and university lecturer Maria del Carmen Parafita Couta have received an NWO Open Competition grant together with Enoch Aboh (University of Amsterdam) to do research on ‘code-switching’: switching languages by multilinguals.
-
Lips pouted or not? How improved speaker recognition can help forensic investigations
Police investigations use wiretapped phone recordings as investigative material fairly regularly. But how do they know that the voice on the recording actually belongs to the suspect? PhD student Laura Smorenburg is trying to answer that question.
-
NWO Open Competition for replication research: 'Deals with fundamental question in my field'
Innovation through repetition. That is how university lecturer Jurriaan Witteman describes his research on the automatic processing of angry voices in the brain. The original research was conducted 20 years ago, but, with an NWO grant, Witteman is now going to see if those results are accurate.
-
Language gets people talking
Studying languages enables you to unearth a lot of valuable information about humans: it reveals our history and explains cultural differences and it even illustrates the process of learning new information. The University is sharing its knowledge of and passion for languages in various new ways, including…