Research departments and research groups

Our institute's primary organisational units are the research departments listed below

Language and cognition

What is the relationship between language and general cognition?
Director: Stephen C. Levinson

Language and genetics

Which genes underlie human language, and how do they explain its evolution and variability? How does the genome help build a language-ready brain?
Director: Simon E. Fisher

Language comprehension

How do we understand spoken language?
Director: Anne Cutler

Neurobiology of language

How does the brain support language?
Director: Peter Hagoort

Psychology of language

What are the psychological processes and representations underlying the production and comprehension of spoken utterances?
Director: Antje S. Meyer

Former department:

Language acquisition

This department is presently being reorganized.

How do we learn a first, second or third language?
Director: Wolfgang Klein

Other research groups funded by the MPG:

Adaptive listening group

How do listeners understand language spoken with a foreign accent?
Headed by: Andrea Weber

Communication before language group

How do infants communicate before they have language?
Headed by: Ulf Liszkowski

Comparative cognitive anthropology group

How much does human cognition vary across cultures?
Headed by: Daniel Haun

Evolutionary processes in language and culture group

How do languages evolve? What is possible, what is probable, and why?
Headed by: Michael Dunn

Syntax, typology, and information structure group

What are the communicative functions of grammatical structures in different languages?
Headed by: Robert Van Valin

Externally funded research groups:

Human sociality and systems of language use

What is the relationship between language and social cognition?
Headed by: Nick Enfield

INTERACT

An interdisciplinary science of human communicative interaction, focusing on the underlying properties of sequences of contingent actions.
Headed by: Stephen C. Levinson

Language in our hands: sign and gesture

Research  investigates to what extent using visual-gestural modality shapes  language.
Headed by: Asli Ozyurek