Research project Know – a cross-linguistic investigation

Knowledge has been a subject of inquiry for thousands of year. Most of the work, however, has been based on introspection about what it really means to know something and relatively little is known about how the domain is actually expressed in the languages of the world. 

This PhD project investigates how knowing and closely related concepts – like understanding and getting to know – are expressed in the languages of the world. The domain is investigated in around 80 languages world-wide through translations of the New Testament. Questions that are investigated include: Do all languages have a word for know? Do languages generally make distinctions between knowing different kinds of thing - people, object. facts? How are words for knowing related to other domains?