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Mission

VRF aims to promote and advance research into language as a knowledge system (i.e. grammar). The foundation seeks to realize this goal by giving theoretical linguists and other experts — individually or by means of teamwork; both of junior and or senior rank — the opportunity (i) to develop ideas, analyses, and theories, (ii) to exchange these with others, and (iii) to disseminate them through relevant channels. The foundation underlines the importance of the education and development of young researchers. One of its goals is to promote the interaction between, and collaboration of, junior and senior researchers.

Vision

Language is a fundamental property of human beings. It is part of our cognition: we have knowledge of language, or to put it differently: we have a mental grammar. In the past decades, major steps have been made in answering the question as to what this knowledge consists of. Fundamental research on both the structure of specific natural languages and human language more generally has led to numerous observations, analyses, and theoretical insights.

VRF considers continuation of fundamental research on language to be of utmost importance. There are still big gaps in our knowledge of this unique capacity of human beings. The foundation aims at stimulating and advancing fundamental research on our knowledge of language (grammar), including language description, linguistic analysis, and linguistic theorizing. It considers the promotion of research activity to be a crucial requirement for reaching a thorough understanding of human language.

Goals

VRF aims to contribute to a dynamic research environment for the study of human language (grammar) by focusing on the following core domains:

  1. Research stimulation through innovation: activities that aim to promote new lines of linguistic inquiry.
  2. Research stimulation through interaction: activities that aims to promote research exchange between researchers/research teams.
  3. Research stimulation through education: activities that support and advance exchange of knowledge.

Launch video

ANBI status
As of May 25th 2021, VRF has been accredited the status of ANBI (Algemeen nut beogende instelling), which means VRF’s efforts are entirely committed to the public benefit.