How does stress influence cognitive performance? What is the role of selective attention to threatening information in this effect? Could we prevent stress-induced decline of cognitive performance with pharmacological interventions? Could we use resting state theta/beta ratio as a biomarker for cognitive…

The research question is that unconscious perseverative cognition (UPC) is responsible for a considerable part of cardiovascular (CV) activity that occurs even in the absence of threats and other stressors that one may encounter in one’s daily life.

How does Russia use propaganda and what characterises Russian propaganda in terms of language and argumentation?

Can excessive worrying be reduced via stimulation of the vagus nerve?

The research programme Language Use in Past and Present brings together linguists within LUCL whose central focus is both on actual language data, including language use in earlier stages of the language, and, taking a variationist perspective, on language change in various aspects.

On May 3rd, Varun de Castro Arrazola succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Varun on this great result.

On 1 April 2020, Marc Broekema defended his thesis 'Cognitive Bias in the Judgment of Business Valuations and Valuators'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.I. van der Rest.

The work presented in this thesis addresses the role of the locus coeruleus (LC) - norepinephrine (NE) system in various aspects of human cognition, and the modulation of brain state.

To develop a new generation of brain science (and train scientists) focused on explaining complex real-world behavioural patterns.

On May 17th, Arthur Crucq succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Arthur on this great result.

How did common people write in the late eighteenth century? Little is yet known on this topic, since our knowledge is mainly based on printed texts written by a small part of the (male) elite population. This dissertation – written from a sociolinguistic point of view – gives us new insights into late-…

Languages of The Hague is a collection of columns on languages and language which were published between 2016 and 2018 in the weekly newspaper Den Haag Centraal.

Knowledge and culture subproject 4:

Morality, mathematics, geometry, geography, music, navigation, and language are traditionally viewed as uniquely human cultural achievements and abilities. The study of their development and variation is classified as part of the humanities and social sciences. These fields have been mainly studied…

In the specialisation in Modern Languages you will explore the structure, acquisition, history and use of one or more of these five languages in depth: Chinese, English, French, German and/or Italian.

On December 18th, Viktorija Kostadinova succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Viktorija on this great result.

On the 17th of January, Sarah Von Grebmer Zu Wolfsthurn successfully defended a doctoral thesis. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Sarah on this achievement!

Cognitive decline and anxiety in Parkinson’s disease are often only recognised at a late stage, in spite of their great impact. Research by Marit Ruitenberg focuses on new tests and methods to show up these symptoms earlier and make them more specific.

In this thesis, dynamic testing principles were applied to examine young children's potential for learning. Our studies focused on the role of cognitive flexibility, to further increase our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in children's ability to learn from instruction and feedback,…

This PhD project investigates what the universal and variable morphosyntactic properties of linguistic expressions of otherness are and how they can be modelled theoretically.

The present investigation aims at exploring whether the instruction provided at secondary schools in the capital meets the requirements of Communicative Language Teaching and whether the aims of improving learners’ communicative proficiency are met.

Sanne Kellij and colleagues systematically reviewed 142 articles, examining evidence for three hypotheses on the relation between victimization and social information processing.

The main goal of this project is to answer the question: how did Dutch acquire its own, distinctive linguistic characteristics?

What are the manifestations, antecedents and consequences of the cognitive uncertainty experiences of social care professionals?

Bernard Bernards examines constraints on innovation by focusing on cognitive uncertainty as a personal state that may affect innovative work behavior.

Up to 50% of individuals with Parkinson's disease develop cognitive impairment over time; this study explores the use of 'practice effects' on neuropsychological tests as an early predictor of cognitive decline.

This thesis describes the use of the evolutionary approach in the study of language change, aiming to provide a better insight in the mechanisms that play a role in language change and to validate this approach in the field of language change.

This research profile area brings together descriptive, historical and theoretical linguistics, as well as psycho- and neurolinguistics.

The Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC) is concentrating increasingly on research into the role of the brain in language development. The institute has now set up the LIBC Language website that brings together all the information on this research.

We are delighted to announce that Speech Prosody 2024 will be held in Leiden, The Netherlands (02–05 July 2024). The conference aims to showcase the facets of prosodic variation and their role in the production, comprehension, and acquisition of speech in order to obtain a better understanding of the…

The ultimate aim of the project is to find out whether there are such things as

In this project we study the properties of statistical- and rule-learning mechanisms in relation to the acquisition and evolution of language. We ask to what extent these mechanisms are unique to humans - or to human language - by comparing the acquisition of vocal structure in two species: humans (infants)…

The Leiden Summer School in Languages and Linguistics 2026 offers a varied program of introductory as well as more advanced courses in Anatolian, Classics, Descriptive Linguistics, Language Documentation, Eastern Christianity, Germanic, General Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-European, Indology,…

Conference

Like any language, the natural sign languages (henceforth: SLs) of deaf communities differ from each other in their grammars and lexicons. A growing number of studies indicates that SLs make use of the gestures of hearing speakers to build linguistic structure. This implies that variation and similarities…

How do speakers adapt to multilingual contexts?

This project explores how Muslim authorities and writers use Russian to transmit Islamic contents, and whether this leads to a specific

In this article Fisher, Klein & Codjo introduce the FOCUSdate Project and they show how the sentiment data provide unique abilities to analyze Russia's and Iran's reactions to US policies and events and NGO human rights campaigns.

Programs that aim to reduce symptoms of social anxiety in children generally include multiple components, such as exposure and cognitive restructuring. It is unknown if separate components yield positive intervention effects in children or whether a combination of components is required.

How do humans control their thoughts and actions, and what can high-field brain scanning reveal about the underlying processes?

Lecture, Language and the Human Past

This collaborative research group (CRG) facilitates the synergies of researchers engaged with African languages and documentation of texts conducted in East Africa, paying particular attention to ‘endangered archives’ and ‘endangered languages’.

On the 6th of January, Kefan Bao successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Kefan on this achievement!

How do teachers conceptualise, develop and implement an effective CLIL practice?

A linguistic prehistory of the Tarim Basin in Northwest China

Comparison between babies and song-birds when they are learning a non-existent language—a study of this kind has never been tried before. But this is what Claartje Levelt, Carel ten Cate (Leiden University) and Jelle Zuidema (University of Amsterdam) are attempting.