How is it that we can learn and remember? Sense the world around us? What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? How has evolution shaped the mind? Could a computer think? Linguistics is the study of questions relating the structure, history, philosophy, psychology, and use of language: What are the properties of languages and how are they acquired? How did language evolve and how have languages changed over time? How is language organized in the brain?

Answers to these questions are found by using techniques and expertise from a number of different disciplines including psychology, linguistics, computer science, philosophy, and cognitive neuroscience. Despite differences in methods of investigation, cognitive scientists have a commitment to a set of ideas: that the mind is a function of the brain, that thinking is a kind of computation, that language and cognition can best be understood as a set of specialized processes and representations. More recently, greater attention has been given to the impact of evolution on thought and language.