Human language is the most powerful communication system that evolution has produced. It is the basis of culture and social life. It comes in many forms (> 6000 languages today). At the same time it is deeply rooted in the neurobiology of the human brain. The overarching quest of our programme is to account for, and understand, the balance between universality and variability at all relevant levels of the language system and the interplay with different cognitive systems, such as memory, action, and cognitive control.
To achieve this, Language in Interaction brings together 70 researchers from eight universities and one research institute within the Netherlands to understand this unique capacity in its full glory.
The consortium was awarded a very substantial subsidy for 10 years within the Gravitation programme. This programme, initiated by the Dutch government and NWO, encourages outstanding and innovative research by consortia of top researchers in the Netherlands.
Language in Interaction is therefore a consortium of individual researchers with an excellent track record in sciences and humanities related to language and cognition. It is not a consortium of institutes or institutions, although all researchers involved have their own institutional affiliations.
Language in Interaction Book
The Language in Interaction consortium has collaborated on the publication “Human Language: From Genes and Brains to Behavior”, edited by Peter Hagoort. The book provides a unique overview of the current state-of-the-art knowledge on human language.
More information on the book’s content and how to purchase it can be found here.
Kennislink Themepage
In collaboration with Kennislink.nl we developed a themepage “Talking about Language” (in Dutch).
Kennislink.nl is the largest popular science website in the Dutch language area and reaches more than 2.7 million visitors per year. Several new articles discussing diverse topics involving “language” will be added every month.
To download the published articles as pdf, see our download section.