How do infants learn a language? Why and how do languages evolve? How do we understand a sentence? This book explores these questions using recent computational models that shed new light on issues related to language and cognition. The chapters in this collection propose original analyses of specific problems and develop computational models that have been tested and evaluated on real data. Featuring contributions from a diverse group of experts, this interdisciplinary book bridges the gap between natural language processing and cognitive sciences. It is divided into three sections, focusing respectively on models of neural and cognitive processing, data driven methods, and social issues in language evolution. This book will be useful to any researcher and advanced student interested in the analysis of the links between the brain and the language faculty.

'The deepest questions about language will be solved through cooperation across disciplinary boundaries. Insights from neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and social science only offer partial explanations. Computer modeling provides an ideal methodology to integrate these diverse insights and put them to the test on real data. This broad collection of papers from leading research groups, contextualised by Thierry Poibeau and Aline Villavicencio, will inspire everyone interested in the cognitive aspects of language processing.'

Walter Daelemans - Universiteit Antwerpen

'Although Natural Language Processing could be considered an area of Cognitive Science, the two fields have tended to go their own way as they matured. Yet the interaction between the two areas can be fruitful. Poibeau and Villavicencio have to be credited for playing an important role in keeping the connection between the two fields alive. The well-chosen and insightful papers in this book provide a great illustration of how the interaction between the two fields can lead to progress in a number of areas from language acquisition to parsing to the diagnosis of cognitive deficits, to the new area of using language models to gain insights about how the brain encodes semantics, and vice versa.'

Massimo Poesio - Queen Mary University of London

'This volume brings a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to its subjects … All of the essays present new and emerging research in neuroscience and language. While the materials covered are advanced for most undergraduates, this volume would make a valuable resource for researchers in the field and a helpful guide to graduate students on subjects for further research. An excellent addition to collections where natural language processing and cognitive science are studied. Summing Up: Recommended.'

R. Bharath Source: Choice