IIT Madras launches ‘Language & Cognition Lab’ to study India’s linguistic diversity

In a significant development, IIT Madras has launched the ‘Language and Cognition Laboratory’ (LC-Lab) to study India’s linguistic diversity through an interdisciplinary and technology-driven approach.

Established at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, this is the first lab in India that systematically engages with the country’s vast linguistic diversity through experimental linguistics.

The Language and Cognition Laboratory was inaugurated by Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, in the presence of the Head of the HSS Department Prof Rajesh Kumar and Faculty Coordinator Dr Anindita Sahoo, Faculty, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras and other stakeholders. The lab will explore how humans perceive, process, and produce language using advanced experimental methods.

In the long term, it aims to contribute to the development of human-centred and linguistically aware AI systems, ensuring that India’s languages and cultures are represented in emerging technologies. This lab will work closely with the Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), IIT Madras to explore the applications of AI methods to language and cognition research

Highlighting the need for such interdisciplinary research, Prof Kamakoti said, “Linguistics is increasingly moving toward empirical, data-driven inquiry, combining methodologies from the sciences and humanities. India needed a dedicated facility that integrated linguistic theory with modern experimental and computational tools. The Language and Cognition Lab was established to fill this gap, creating a space that connects linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, and contributes to the development of socially relevant, linguistically informed technologies.”

The Language and Cognition Laboratory (LC-Lab) will investigate how people process linguistic information by employing techniques such as eye-tracking and reaction-time studies. Its research focuses primarily on Indian languages, offering crucial insights into how grammar, voice, and sentence structure are understood and produced in multilingual contexts.

While ongoing projects study grammatical voice and copula constructions, upcoming work will examine dyslexia in Indian children, with the goal of improving educational outcomes and developing linguistically relevant teaching interventions.