Exploring the Puzzle of Language

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The chapter delves into the speaker's journey from mathematician to language exploration, focusing on syntax and grammar over the philosophy of language. It discusses the relationship between form and meaning in language, highlighting word order tendencies and the impact on communication. The conversation also touches on the structure of language, syntax in human languages, and how words are categorized based on usage rather than direct meaning.

Edward Gibson is a psycholinguistics professor at MIT and heads the MIT Language Lab. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/edward-gibson-transcript

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(10:53) – Human language
(14:59) – Generalizations in language
(20:46) – Dependency grammar
(30:45) – Morphology
(39:20) – Evolution of languages
(42:40) – Noam Chomsky
(1:26:46) – Thinking and language
(1:40:16) – LLMs
(1:53:14) – Center embedding
(2:19:42) – Learning a new language
(2:23:34) – Nature vs nurture
(2:30:10) – Culture and language
(2:44:38) – Universal language
(2:49:01) – Language translation
(2:52:16) – Animal communication