Categorisation, communication and the local environment

世界各地的语言包含不同的类别系统，理解这种差异有助于更好地理解不同文化之间的相似和差异。这个项目考察了语言变异是如何在一定程度上受到当地自然和社会环境变化的影响的。这些方法包括对大型电子数据集的计算分析，包括最近才出现的词典和语言语料库，以及探索导致语言差异的因果机制的心理学实验。其成果包括找出语言之间关键差异的计算工具，从而支持跨文化交流。

Languages around the world incorporate different systems of categories, and understanding this variation can contribute to a better understanding of similarities and differences between cultures. This project examines how linguistic variation is shaped in part by variation in the local physical and social environment. The methods include computational analyses of large electronic data sets including dictionaries and linguistic corpora that have become available only recently, and psychological experiments that probe the causal mechanisms that lead to variation across languages. The outcomes include computational tools that pick out key differences between languages and therefore support cross-cultural communication.