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Topic · Cultural Studies

Language and cultural evolution

Language and cultural evolution is a research topic within Cultural Studies. Science Explorer counts 12k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the evolutionary dynamics of cultural evolution, with a focus on language development, social learning strategies, phylogenetics, and the impact of culture on human adaptation. It delves into topics such as cumulative culture, semantic change, linguistic diversity, and the grounding of symbols in language. The papers also discuss the role of cultural evolution in shaping human intelligence and behavior.

  • Cultural Evolution
  • Language
  • Social Learning
  • Phylogenetics
  • Human Adaptation
  • Cumulative Culture
  • Evolutionary Dynamics
  • Semantic Change
  • Linguistic Diversity
  • Symbol Grounding
Research works
12k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+22%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
37% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Language and cultural evolution

Which countries lead Language and cultural evolution research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (726 and 258 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 726 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 258 works
  3. 3 Germany 228 works
  4. 4 China 202 works
  5. 5 France 124 works
  6. 6 Japan 102 works
  7. 7 Italy 102 works
  8. 8 India 79 works
  9. 9 Canada 78 works
  10. 10 Australia 75 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 36.8%United Kingdom: 13.1%Germany: 11.5%China: 10.2%6 others listed: 28.4%37%largest
United States726 · 36.8%United Kingdom258 · 13.1%Germany228 · 11.5%China202 · 10.2%6 others listed561 · 28.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Language and cultural evolution research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Language and cultural evolution research, followed by Max Planck Society and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 51 works
  2. 2 Max Planck SocietyGermany 46 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 22 works
  4. 4 University of ZurichSwitzerland 19 works
  5. 5 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 18 works
  6. 6 University of TübingenGermany 17 works
  7. 7 Salesian UniversityMexico 17 works
  8. 8 Australian National UniversityAustralia 15 works
  9. 9 University of ChicagoUnited States 15 works
  10. 10 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 14 works

Who are the leading researchers in Language and cultural evolution?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Language and cultural evolution include Yoshua Bengio, Karl John Friston and Demis Hassabis.

  1. 1 Yoshua Bengio Canada 476k citations
  2. 2 Karl John Friston United Kingdom 310k citations
  3. 3 Demis Hassabis United Kingdom 199k citations
  4. 4 Harry Eugene Stanley United States 198k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Language and cultural evolution?

The most cited paper in Language and cultural evolution is "Finding Structure in Time" (Jeffrey L. Elman, 1990), with 11,110 citations. Next come "Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants" (5,779) and "The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve?" (5,242).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Finding Structure in Time Jeffrey L. Elman · Cognitive Science Mar 1990 11,110
2 Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants Jenny R. Saffran, Richard Ν. Aslin, Elissa L. Newport · Science 13 Dec 1996 5,779
3 The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve? MARC DAVID HAUSER, Noam Chomsky, W. Tecumseh Fitch · Science 21 Nov 2002 5,242
4 WEIRD languages have misled us, too [Comment on Henrich et al.] Asifa Majid, Stephen C. Levinson · MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) Open access 2010 4,095
5 Connectionism and cognitive architecture: A critical analysis Jerry A. Fodor, Zenon W. Pylyshyn · Cognition Mar 1988 4,072
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Language and cultural evolution research done?

The largest centres of Language and cultural evolution research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Paris (France), Beijing (China) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Leipzig, Austin and Zurich.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 52 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 51 works
  3. 3 BeijingChina 50 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 43 works
  5. 5 TokyoJapan 42 works
  6. 6 ZurichSwitzerland 34 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 33 works
  8. 8 LeipzigGermany 30 works
  9. 9 CambridgeUnited States 25 works
  10. 10 ShanghaiChina 23 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LeipzigDE · 29.7 works17×
  2. AustinUS · 21.9 works7.5×
  3. ZurichCH · 34.3 works6.8×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Language and cultural evolution than the world average.

See Language and cultural evolution on the map

Where is the best place to study Language and cultural evolution?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Zurich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Oxford score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.14%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of St And…Massachusetts Instit…University of ZurichUniversity of Oxford
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of ZurichSwitzerland 82.518.2%11.1×19 +12.7%
2Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 69.719.4%7.2×12 +25.0%
3University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 67.511.1%5.2×18 -11.1%
4University of St AndrewsUnited Kingdom 66.523.7%17.8×9 +20.4%
5Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom 65.831.4%9.1×8 +57.5%
6Australian National UniversityAustralia 65.616.4%11.9×15 +2.9%
7University of TübingenGermany 63.513.6%16.1×17 -1.8%
8University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 59.512.2%4.8×14 +12.5%
9Stanford UniversityUnited States 56.316.8%3.4×12 -2.1%
10Salesian UniversityMexico 55.48.6%1477.6×17 -

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Language and cultural evolution, country by country

Is Language and cultural evolution research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 22% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2026. The fastest-growing topics are Language and cultural evolution.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Language and cultural evolution as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0079% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%Language and cultural evolution0.013% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Language and cultural evolution over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Language and cultural evolution10.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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