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UID:16787-91c09cb52816ca999eb52cacbd0340cb@events.la.psu.edu
DTSTAMP:20260412T064856Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250502T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250502T103000
SUMMARY:LinDiv speaker: Anna Ivanova, Georgia Institute of Technology
DESCRIPTION:“Dissociating Language and Thought in Humans and in Machines
”\n\nWhat is the relationship between language and thought? This questio
n has long intrigued researchers across scientific fields. In this talk\
, Anna Ivanova will propose a framework for clarifying the language-thou
ght relationship. She will introduce a distinction between formal compet
ence—knowledge of linguistic rules and patterns—and functional competenc
e—understanding and using language in the world. This distinction is gro
unded in human neuroscience\, where a wealth of evidence indicates that
formal competence relies on a set of specialized brain regions (“the lan
guage network”)\, whereas functional competence requires the use of mult
iple non-language-specific neural systems. She will then illustrate how
the formal/functional competence distinction can help (a) delineate the
functional architecture of the human brain and (b) understand the capabi
lities and limitations of today’s large language models. In both cases\,
she will primarily focus on general world knowledge\, a functional comp
etence domain where language and conceptual knowledge can be particularl
y tricky to disentangle.\n\nThis talk is part of the CLS Distinguished S
cience Language Colloquium series and is supported by the NSF NRT progra
m "Linguistic diversity across the lifespan: Transforming training to ad
vance human-technology interaction”. NSF grant #2125865\n\nFor more deta
ils: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/lindiv-speaker-dr-anna-ivanova-geor
gia-institute-of-technology/
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:“Dissociating
Language and Thought in Humans and in Machines”
What is the relat
ionship between language and thought? This question has long intrigued r
esearchers across scientific fields. In this talk, Anna Ivanova will pro
pose a framework for clarifying the language-thought relationship. She w
ill introduce a distinction between formal competence—knowledge of lingu
istic rules and patterns—and functional competence—understanding and usi
ng language in the world. This distinction is grounded in human neurosci
ence, where a wealth of evidence indicates that formal competence relies
on a set of specialized brain regions (“the language network”), whereas
functional competence requires the use of multiple non-language-specifi
c neural systems. She will then illustrate how the formal/functional com
petence distinction can help (a) delineate the functional architecture o
f the human brain and (b) understand the capabilities and limitations of
today’s large language models. In both cases, she will primarily focus
on general world knowledge, a functional competence domain where languag
e and conceptual knowledge can be particularly tricky to disentangle.
This talk is part of the CLS Distinguished Science Language Colloqui
um series and is supported by the NSF NRT program "Linguistic diversity
across the lifespan: Transforming training to advance human-technology i
nteraction”. NSF grant #2125865
For more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/lindiv-speake
r-dr-anna-ivanova-georgia-institute-of-technology/
LOCATION:102 Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library
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