Federal Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer launches the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, to be based at ANU.
A new national research centre based at ANU will investigate how language works and how it makes us who we are. Based at the University, the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language draws together the nation's top linguists, philosophers, psychologists and roboticists to puzzle out the complex mechanisms of human communication. The new centre will focus on four key areas: how languages differ, how they are learned, how the brain processes them and how they evolve. "We once imagined that all languages had the same basic operating system," said Professor Nick Evans, the Centre's director. "We are now becoming aware of the impressive diversity of the world's languages. "Just as biological evolution has produced species with special adaptations for different environments, language evolution has generated unique design solutions for the problem of communication." Already, new findings by Centre researchers are leading to the development of advanced language-learning robots and technology-assisted dementia treatments. No other species is capable of reproducing anything like our own highly developed communication systems, suggesting that language is fundamental to questions of human evolution and the development of culture.
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