The Influence of Language on Counting and Society

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The chapter explores the relationship between language, counting, and societal development, discussing how the availability of counting words can shape a society's inventions and capabilities. It delves into the challenges individuals face when tasks require encoding sets without counting, highlighting the limitations and approximations made in such situations. Additionally, the conversation touches on how language can act as both a facilitator and a limiter of human activities and societal progress.

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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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