Louise McNally is a professor of linguistics in the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at UPF and a member of the Formal Linguistics Research Group (GLIF). She coordinated the local organization of the 27 ^th edition of the European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI), held at the university in August. She received the ICREA Academia award (for excellence in research) in 2008 and 2013. She is vice-rector for teaching staff at UPF.

- What does it mean to have brought the 27 ^th edition of the ESSLLI to UPF?

- It is one of the most important summer schools in its field. It is organized by the Association for Logic, Language and Information (FoLLI), with the support of other international associations dedicated to logic and computing. It promotes synergies between logic, linguistics, computer science, philosophy of language, and cognitive sciences in order to shed light on the nature of human language and improve language technologies. This year, some 380 people from 40 countries took part in 48 courses and workshops held over the two weeks that the school was in session. 

- How would you explain 'formal language' and 'natural language' to a layperson?

- 'Natural language' refers to the languages spoken by humans, whether orally or signed. They evolve organically among all speakers, and, as a result, we don't usually think about them: descriptive grammars simply offer an abstract summary of the common traits found in people's coordinated language behaviour. In contrast, a formal language is consciously created and explicitly defined with basic symbols and rules for combining them. Examples of formal languages would include the logic of propositions and programming languages, such as Java.

- What do language, logic and computation have in common? Can reality be transformed into a set of algorithms?

- Natural language follows patterns or rules. They may be probabilistic, subject to exceptions, or different from the rules you learned at school, but they can be inferred by observing how we speak. Logic and computation also follow defined rules with specific properties. Therefore, if we can map what we observe in language to a logic or computational process, we will learn something. 

- To what extent can language be said to refer to or explain the world we live in? What limitations does it have when it comes to interpreting reality?

- People often say that language 'has meaning', but really we are the ones doing the referring, explaining, and interpreting. Language is only a tool, like a pencil. We can use a pencil to do a lot of things other than write. Language is not so different in this regard, although its complexity and role in our social relations and cognition certainly influence how we go about adapting it to our needs.

- Do statistics and psychology play a role in the conceptualization of language?

- Absolutely. The natural world is so complex that researchers tend to take a 'divide and conquer' approach to it, focusing on just a few aspects of a given phenomenon. Hence, the boundaries between disciplines and methodologies. This strategy may be inevitable, but it is also dangerous.

- How can the architecture of human language be described? What differences are there between different languages?

- All human languages have a vocabulary (morphemes), a system for combining it in complex words and structures (grammar), and conventions with regard to interpretation and usage (semantics and pragmatics). They also all have certain minimum units that are meaningless on their own (e.g., sounds) and a system for combining them to form morphemes (phonology). Beyond that, there is incredible variety. To give one exotic example, the Dagaare language, spoken in Ghana, does not divide nouns into count nouns (lake) and non-count nouns (rice), but rather uses the morphology of 'number' to mark whether or not an object is individuated regularly or not, such that the same suffix (-ri) is added to the word rice to refer to a grain of rice and to the word lake to refer to a plurality of lakes. This example raises the question of whether there could be a theory on the limits of variation. What do the Catalan and Dagaare number systems have in common? Because of their abstract nature, formal models help us research these questions.

- Turning to your experience as vice-rector for teaching staff, what challenges do the information society and new technologies pose for faculty?

- I would highlight two: knowing how to absorb and filter the avalanche of information we are exposed to today and not pointlessly encouraging it.

- What would you highlight from your experience as vice-rector?

- I have really enjoyed meeting people from all fields and of all backgrounds and categories, as well as learning how the different communities, both academic and administrative, work.

- What projects have been launched?

- I have mainly worked on two goals: improving planning and contracting processes and enhancing human resource policy, for example, by participating in the EU's 'Human Resources Strategy for Researchers' (HRS4R) programme.

- Academic inbreeding is a recurring theme at universities. What measures is UPF taking in this area?

- One of the most important measures being taken to reduce it is to better publicize job openings at UPF in order to attract applicants from all over. The implementation of a dissociation policy has also helped, that is, not contracting the university's own PhDs for tenure-track positions until they have left UPF and worked somewhere else for at least two years.

- Another common topic is the lack of women faculty. What can be done to increase their numbers?

- I would like to point to one very important factor: being very careful not to penalize or reward external behaviour (e.g., excessive modesty or self-confidence) that does not reflect a person's true value. 

SHE LIKES ... Above all, spending time with her family

As well as:

A musician: Dave Grohl

A book:  The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert Caro

A value: Responsibility