Language acquisition –– the uniquely human capacity to acquire language –– is still a poorly understood phenomenon. To facilitate collaborative research on the world’s roughly 7,000 languages, new cybertools have been developed and are now being implemented at the University’s Language Acquisition Lab.

How laughing releases our frustration with language.

While we analyze meaning when taken from works of art, the way we communicate meaning often gets taken for granted. Yet studies within the field of cognitive science are working to find the meaning in the way we talk about meaning.

At the University of Texas, the importance of foreign language requirements came into debate recently. A proposal had been put forth that suggested the College of Liberal Arts reduce the foreign language requirement from 16 credits to 12. In a meeting to discuss the proposal, the faculty of the college was resolutely opposed to the resolution. Randy Diehl, the Dean of the college, sent an email to faculty, withdrawing the proposal. He stated, " "[i]n three and a half hours of give and take, not one audience member spoke in favor of the proposal.... In view of the overwhelming negative reaction to the proposal, I have decided to withdraw it from further consideration."

Here at Cornell, as at any other college campus or location where academics convene, we have sprinkled among our populace grammar snobs.

You probably know the type. The guy who never ends sentences with prepositions; who cringes when people use the word “disconnect”; who distinguishes between “who” and “whom” in speech, even though it makes him sound pompous and weeny.

The University has recently terminated on-campus instruction in Dutch, Swedish and Turkish, as well as an English as a Second Language writing course titled English for Academic Purposes. Given President Skorton’s March 26 comments advocating cautiousness when eliminating programs that attract new students, these cuts denote nothing less than a broken promise.

Lately, many staff cuts have been justified as necessary to insulate students’ academic options from the repercussions of the budget crunch, but these course cuts suggest otherwise. Although staff and program reductions are inevitable, by first announcing that jobs were sacrificed for the sake of academics, and then watching courses get cut wholesale, makes us skeptical.

To the Editor:

Re: “Future Turkish Classes Available Only on Video,” News, April 15.