Professor Cedric Boeckx
Welcome to my website! My name is Cedric Boeckx (pronounced like “books”). I am scientist fascinating by human cognition. Because it plays such a special role in what makes us human, our capacity to acquire languages is the trait I focus on.
Since everythings makes a lot more sense in the light of evolution, I try to understand how our species came to acquire this special linguistic talent. I suspect the key lies in the way our brain develops.
To figure out exactly how, I try to link neural development with genetic information, which is critical in the absence of brains in the fossil record.
Selected Works and Publications
I have authored several books including Reflections on Language Evolution (2021), Elementary Syntactic Structures (2014), Language in Cognition (2009), and Linguistic Minimalism (2006), alongside editing volumes such as The Oxford Handbook of Approaches to Language Evolution (2025).
My recent articles deal with genomics, neuroscience, and the ecology of language evolution.
Mission
I serve as Principal Investigator of the “Cognitive Biology of Language” research group.
My group focuses on the neurobiological foundations of the human capacity to naturally acquire grammatical systems. As such, we don’t study languages, and focus instead of the neurobiological scaffolding that shapes our ability to learn them.
We believe that the human capacity for language is the result of a complex interplay between nature and nurture, and that the mosaic nature of this capacity demands a broad comparative method, recognizing the mental richness of other species.
It also demands an analysis bridging several levels of description: the molecular, the cellular, the cognitive, and ultimately the behavioral .
In doing so, we want to contribute to an integrative research program for the language sciences.
Mission
I serve as Principal Investigator of the “Cognitive Biology of Language” research group.
My group focuses on the neurobiological foundations of the human capacity to naturally acquire grammatical systems. As such, we don’t study languages, and focus instead of the neurobiological scaffolding that shapes our ability to learn them.
We believe that the human capacity for language is the result of a complex interplay between nature and nurture, and that the mosaic nature of this capacity demands a broad comparative method, recognizing the mental richness of other species.
It also demands an analysis bridging several levels of description: the molecular, the cellular, the cognitive, and ultimately the behavioral .
In doing so, we want to contribute to an integrative research program for the language sciences.
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