Change, variation and cognition in Language

The central goal of this line of research is the scientific study of the essential aspects of language and languages: the processes of synchronic and diachronic change and variation, as well as the cognitive foundations of linguistic phenomena.

This line comprises four independent groups from the point of view of their specific goals, all of which share analysis techniques and problems. These groups are “Speech Sciences” (FONO), “Geolinguistics and variation of the Spanish Language” (GEOVE), “Language and cognitive science” (LyCC) and “Diachronic linguistics of the Spanish Language” (GLIDE).

The research of this line addresses phonetic-phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic phenomena of the Spanish language and other languages from historical, social and geographical perspectives, or taking into account the knowledge and production of language as a specifically human ability.

The projects of the line aim to increase interaction and mutual contribution between the basic conceptual and experimental frameworks of the groups, and also from interdisciplinary approaches: data collection and creation of linguistic atlas and archives of oral and written texts, compilation of dictionaries and grammars, laboratory studies of phonetic-phonological phenomena or grounded theoretical analyses, among others.