Lex Fridman Podcast

Lex Fridman Podcast


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

April 17, 2024

Edward Gibson is a psycholinguistics professor at MIT and heads the MIT Language Lab. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

Yahoo Finance: https://yahoofinance.com

Listening: https://listening.com/lex and use code LEX to get one month free

Policygenius: https://policygenius.com/lex

Shopify: https://shopify.com/lex to get $1 per month trial

Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings


Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/edward-gibson-transcript


EPISODE LINKS:

Edward’s X: https://x.com/LanguageMIT

TedLab: https://tedlab.mit.edu/

Edward’s Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4FsWE64AAAAJ

TedLab’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/@Tedlab-MIT


PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8

RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/

YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman

YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips


SUPPORT & CONNECT:

– Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast

– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

– Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman

– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman

– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman

– Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman


OUTLINE:

Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) – Introduction

(10:53) – Human language

(14:59) – Generalizations in language

(20:46) – Dependency grammar

(30:45) – Morphology

(39:20) – Evolution of languages

(42:40) – Noam Chomsky

(1:26:46) – Thinking and language

(1:40:16) – LLMs

(1:53:14) – Center embedding

(2:19:42) – Learning a new language

(2:23:34) – Nature vs nurture

(2:30:10) – Culture and language

(2:44:38) – Universal language

(2:49:01) – Language translation

(2:52:16) – Animal communication