Language is integral to how we express and communicate in everyday life.
Understanding how people use language - what words and phrases they choose to combine - can give us insight into ourselves and why we behave the way we do.

Language: a primary tool for understanding human behavior

Communication

According to research, slight differences in language can reveal biased beliefs of the speakers.
For example, saying "girls are as good as boys at math" can imply that being good at math is more common for boys than girls.

How language is interpreted

There are about 7,000 languages worldwide. Each language reflects the culture of the people who speak it.
Studying other languages and how they develop over time can help scholars understand the unique ways we communicate with one another.

Other languages inform our own

Speech patterns correlate to particular behaviors. This includes how language can influence people's buying decisions or social media use.
When we understand what groups of people say and why, it can help to bring those people together.

Language informs behavior

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The power of language: How words shape people, culture

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Speaking, writing and reading are integral to everyday life, where language is the primary tool for expression and communication. Studying how people use language – what words and phrases they unconsciously choose and combine – can help us better understand ourselves and why we behave the way we do.

Linguistics scholars seek to determine what is unique and universal about the language we use, how it is acquired and the ways it changes over time. They consider language as a cultural, social and psychological phenomenon.

“Understanding why and how languages differ tells about the range of what is human,” said <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/">Dan Jurafsky </a>, the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor in Humanities and chair of the Department of Linguistics in the <a href="https://humsci.stanford.edu/">School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford </a>. “Discovering what’s universal about languages can help us understand the core of our humanity.”

The stories below represent some of the ways linguists have investigated many aspects of language, including its semantics and syntax, phonetics and phonology, and its social, psychological and computational aspects.

Stanford linguists and psychologists study how language is interpreted by people. Even the slightest differences in language use can correspond with biased beliefs of the speakers, according to research.

One study showed that a relatively harmless sentence, such as “girls are as good as boys at math,” can subtly perpetuate sexist stereotypes. Because of the statement’s grammatical structure, it implies that being good at math is more common or natural for boys than girls, the researchers said.

Language can play a big role in how we and others perceive the world, and linguists work to discover what words and phrases can influence us, unknowingly.

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How well-meaning statements can spread stereotypes unintentionally

New Stanford research shows that sentences that frame one gender as the standard for the other can unintentionally perpetuate biases.

New Stanford research shows that, over the past century, linguistic changes in gender and ethnic stereotypes correlated with major social movements and demographic changes in the U.S. Census data.

Exploring what an interruption is in conversation

Stanford doctoral candidate Katherine Hilton found that people perceive interruptions in conversation differently, and those perceptions differ depending on the listener’s own conversational style as well as gender.

Cops speak less respectfully to black community members

Professors Jennifer Eberhardt and Dan Jurafsky, along with other Stanford researchers, detected racial disparities in police officers’ speech after analyzing more than 100 hours of body camera footage from Oakland Police.

People speak roughly 7,000 languages worldwide. Although there is a lot in common among languages, each one is unique, both in its structure and in the way it reflects the culture of the people who speak it.

Jurafsky said it’s important to study languages other than our own and how they develop over time because it can help scholars understand what lies at the foundation of humans’ unique way of communicating with one another.

“All this research can help us discover what it means to be human,” Jurafsky said.

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Stanford PhD student documents indigenous language of Papua New Guinea

Fifth-year PhD student Kate Lindsey recently returned to the United States after a year of documenting an obscure language indigenous to the South Pacific nation.

In a research project spanning eight countries, two Stanford students search for Esperanto, a constructed language, against the backdrop of European populism.

Chris Manning: How computers are learning to understand language​

A computer scientist discusses the evolution of computational linguistics and where it’s headed next.

Stanford research explores novel perspectives on the evolution of Spanish

Using digital tools and literature to explore the evolution of the Spanish language, Stanford researcher Cuauhtémoc García-García reveals a new historical perspective on linguistic changes in Latin America and Spain.

Linguists analyze how certain speech patterns correspond to particular behaviors, including how language can impact people’s buying decisions or influence their social media use.

For example, in one research paper, a group of Stanford researchers examined the differences in how Republicans and Democrats express themselves online to better understand how a polarization of beliefs can occur on social media.

“We live in a very polarized time,” Jurafsky said. “Understanding what different groups of people say and why is the first step in determining how we can help bring people together.”

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Analyzing the tweets of Republicans and Democrats

New research by Dora Demszky and colleagues examined how Republicans and Democrats express themselves online in an attempt to understand how polarization of beliefs occurs on social media.

Examining bilingual behavior of children at Texas preschool

A Stanford senior studied a group of bilingual children at a Spanish immersion preschool in Texas to understand how they distinguished between their two languages.

Predicting sales of online products from advertising language

Stanford linguist Dan Jurafsky and colleagues have found that products in Japan sell better if their advertising includes polite language and words that invoke cultural traditions or authority.

Language can help the elderly cope with the challenges of aging, says Stanford professor

By examining conversations of elderly Japanese women, linguist Yoshiko Matsumoto uncovers language techniques that help people move past traumatic events and regain a sense of normalcy.

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A conversation with Sarah Church, vice provost for undergraduate education

Physics Professor Sarah Church talks about taking on her new role as vice provost for undergraduate education during the pandemic, her commitment to undergraduate education and the university’s efforts to help students and instructors navigate the teaching and learning challenges of the upcoming academic year.

The high-stakes count: Taking the census during a pandemic

Stanford Law professors Pamela Karlan and Nate Persily discuss the census, law, challenges to getting an accurate count, and why it matters.

Orientation for new Stanford graduate students will be different, while still the same

Stanford is welcoming more than 2,000 master’s, doctoral and professional degree students with a two-week series of opportunities to get to know the university and each other.

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Bite‑sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

The power of language: How words shape people, culture

Language: a primary tool for understanding human behavior

How language is interpreted

Other languages inform our own

Language informs behavior

The big idea: are we really so polarised? | Dominic Packer and Jay Van Bavel

Like a moth to a flame, we're drawn to metaphors to explain ourselves

The Language of Gender Bias in Performance Reviews

Bite‑sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

The power of language: How words shape people, culture

Language: a primary tool for understanding human behavior

How language is interpreted

Other languages inform our own

Language informs behavior

The big idea: are we really so polarised? | Dominic Packer and Jay Van Bavel

Like a moth to a flame, we're drawn to metaphors to explain ourselves

The Language of Gender Bias in Performance Reviews

Bite‑sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career