It is an exciting time for the science of human language.

 
We now have large language models that produce and comprehend language to nearly human levels, demonstrating surprising abilities to reason intelligently. We have gigantic datasets of language use, careful documentation of thousands of languages, new experimental paradigms for understanding language processing, and new computational paradigms for modeling that data. The time is ripe to reconsider classic and foundational questions about language, such as: Why is human language the way it is? How does it fit into the bigger picture of human intelligence? What is the relationship between language and thought? What function does language serve, how did it evolve, and where is it going, in a world where machines that can use language like us are becoming ubiquitous?

The Center for Language, Intelligence, and Computation brings together researchers from across disciplinary boundaries, including language science, cognitive science, computers science, philosophy, and others, who are bringing modern computational models and ideas to bear to understand these core scientific questions about language.