The project focuses on language as an irreplaceable means of communication with the environment for every human being. It examines how we acquire language in childhood, how it functions in adults, and what challenges individuals face as a result of aging. The aim of the project is interdisciplinary research based on a combination of linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience, which, by producing cutting-edge results, will enable an adequate and effective response to the global challenges of contemporary society related to language.
Project Identification
- CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008726
Project Period
- 1/2025–12/2028
Partner institutions
Expert project manager
doc. Mgr. Pavel Caha, Ph.D.
Pavel Caha has been working at the Institute of Czech Language at Masaryk University since 2014, currently as an associate professor. Caha spent a significant part of his career abroad: he received his Ph.D. in theoretical linguistics from the University of Tromsø in Norway (2009), where he was also a postdoctoral researcher (2009-2013). His research activity falls within the field of theoretical linguistics, and he is involved in developing the theory of nanosyntax. This is based on the idea that the basic building blocks of languages, from which we create words and sentences, are very small; much smaller than any directly observable units. This theory attempts to deduce what these building blocks are and how they are organized in the human mind by comparing languages and making detailed empirical observations. An important component of this theory is complex lexical representations (language signs), the study of which, from early childhood through adulthood to old age, forms the main research line of this project.