#426 – Edward Gibson: Human Language, Psycholinguistics, Syntax, Grammar & LLMs

About this episode

<p>Edward Gibson is a psycholinguistics professor at MIT and heads the MIT Language Lab. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:<br /> &#8211; <b>Yahoo Finance</b>: <a href="https://yahoofinance.com">https://yahoofinance.com</a><br /> &#8211; <b>Listening</b>: <a href="https://listening.com/lex">https://listening.com/lex</a> and use code LEX to get one month free<br /> &#8211; <b>Policygenius</b>: <a href="https://policygenius.com/lex">https://policygenius.com/lex</a><br /> &#8211; <b>Shopify</b>: <a href="https://shopify.com/lex">https://shopify.com/lex</a> to get $1 per month trial<br /> &#8211; <b>Eight Sleep</b>: <a href="https://eightsleep.com/lex">https://eightsleep.com/lex</a> to get special savings</p> <p>Transcript: <a href="https://lexfridman.com/edward-gibson-transcript">https://lexfridman.com/edward-gibson-transcript</a></p> <p><b>EPISODE LINKS:</b><br /> Edward&#8217;s X: <a href="https://x.com/LanguageMIT">https://x.com/LanguageMIT</a><br /> TedLab: <a href="https://tedlab.mit.edu/">https://tedlab.mit.edu/</a><br /> Edward&#8217;s Google Scholar: <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4FsWE64AAAAJ">https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4FsWE64AAAAJ</a><br /> TedLab&#8217;s YouTube: <a href="https://youtube.com/@Tedlab-MIT">https://youtube.com/@Tedlab-MIT</a></p> <p><b>PODCAST INFO:</b><br /> Podcast website: <a href="https://lexfridman.com/podcast">https://lexfridman.com/podcast</a><br /> Apple Podcasts: <a href="https://apple.co/2lwqZIr">https://apple.co/2lwqZIr</a><br /> Spotify: <a href="https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8">https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8</a><br /> RSS: <a href="https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/">https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/</a><br /> YouTube Full Episodes: <a href="https://youtube.com/lexfridman">https://youtube.com/lexfridman</a><br /> YouTube Clips: <a href="https://youtube.com/lexclips">https://youtube.com/lexclips</a></p> <p><b>SUPPORT &#38; CONNECT:</b><br /> &#8211; Check out the sponsors above, it&#8217;s the best way to support this podcast<br /> &#8211; Support on Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman">https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman</a><br /> &#8211; Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/lexfridman">https://twitter.com/lexfridman</a><br /> &#8211; Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman">https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman</a><br /> &#8211; LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman">https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman</a><br /> &#8211; Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman">https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman</a><br /> &#8211; Medium: <a href="https://medium.com/@lexfridman">https://medium.com/@lexfridman</a></p> <p><b>OUTLINE:</b><br /> Here&#8217;s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.<br /> (00:00) &#8211; Introduction<br /> (10:53) &#8211; Human language<br /> (14:59) &#8211; Generalizations in language<br /> (20:46) &#8211; Dependency grammar<br /> (30:45) &#8211; Morphology<br /> (39:20) &#8211; Evolution of languages<br /> (42:40) &#8211; Noam Chomsky<br /> (1:26:46) &#8211; Thinking and language<br /> (1:40:16) &#8211; LLMs<br /> (1:53:14) &#8211; Center embedding<br /> (2:19:42) &#8211; Learning a new language<br /> (2:23:34) &#8211; Nature vs nurture<br /> (2:30:10) &#8211; Culture and language<br /> (2:44:38) &#8211; Universal language<br /> (2:49:01) &#8211; Language translation<br /> (2:52:16) &#8211; Animal communication</p>