An interdisciplinary research consortium to study our language
The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language is a nationwide interdisciplinary research consortium bringing together research groups from humanities, language and computer science, social sciences, and natural sciences at an unprecedented level. Together, the Idiap Research Institute and its partners aim to solve one of humanity's great mysteries: How did our species develop the capacity for linguistic expression, for processing language in the brain, and for consistently passing down new variations to the next generation?
The role of Lonneke van der Plas, Lead Scientist of the recently created Computation, Cognition & Language group, will be to study the effects of modern communication technologies on language. In particular, she plans to develop computational models for the phenomenon of lexical innovation, like the emergence of novel terms, on social media platforms, and study the use of novel terms in online discourse.
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