É. Kiss Katalin, a Bolyai Prize laureate, discusses her work on the internal regularities of the Hungarian language in a Portfolio interview and podcast episode. The conversation emphasizes that modern theoretical linguistics is more than school grammar: for many researchers it addresses fundamental questions about the human mind and how language is instantiated in cognition.
Origins of generative grammar
The program recalls the role of Noam Chomsky and his collaborators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in establishing generative grammar. The generative approach aims to uncover the mechanisms underlying human language — described in the interview as an effort to "decode the genetic source code of human language." Central to this research is the question of what aspects of language are innate and what are learned from the environment.
Relation to artificial intelligence
Although contemporary large language models rely on massive text corpora and operate by statistical methods, the podcast stresses that modern language technology and theoretical linguistics continue to inspire one another. The interview does not equate the goals of the two fields, but highlights a productive dialogue between theoretical investigations of deep linguistic structure and practical modeling efforts.
The podcast and further details
The interview was conducted by Vidovszky Áron, head of Portfolio Investment Services. The episode is available on platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and can be played via the embedded player in the Portfolio article. The piece references related Portfolio posts with dates (for example, 2025-05-18 and 2026-01-17), while focusing on presenting the theoretical questions and the interaction between linguistics and language technology.
Why this matters
The discussion with É. Kiss Katalin illustrates that linguistic research is not merely academic abstraction: theoretical findings help clarify the structure of human language, which can in turn inform language-technology development. The podcast offers a chance for a wider audience to hear an established researcher reflect on the contemporary relevance of generative theory.
