We cordially invite you to a lecture as part of the Lexicology, Lexicography, Gramaticography module by Vlad A. Neacșu, on Friday, 23 January 2026 at 2:00 PM:
Deciphering Languages Without Knowing Them: Linguistics Olympiad, Humans, and AI.
Linguistics Olympiad problems (LOPs) are a special genre of puzzles that present linguistic features and phenomena in an encrypted form. These problems are used in the International Linguistics Olympiad and related national olympiads and consist of a scaled-down corpus of sentences/phrases/words representative of certain linguistic phenomena. From this, the solver must infer/deduce a primitive set of grammatical rules of the language and then translate a new set of elements. In recent years, large language models (LLMs) have shown impressive performance on many language-related tasks, raising the question of whether such systems can also solve Linguistics Olympiad problems. And if so, how?
In this talk, I bring together two perspectives: empirical research on the performance of LLMs on LOPs, and pedagogical insights from training students for the International Linguistics Olympiad. I discuss why current AI systems often struggle with these problems despite their apparent fluency, focusing on issues such as memorisation and tokenisation.
By comparing how humans and machines approach the same tasks, the talk argues that Linguistics Olympiad problems offer a unique lens on the distinction between pattern recognition and genuine reasoning. I conclude by reflecting on what these findings imply both for the future of AI and for the educational value of linguistics competitions.
The lecture will be held in English in the conference room of ZRC SAZU, Novi trg 2, 1. floor, Ljubljana.
Vlad A. Neacșu is a PhD student at the “Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” Institute of Linguistics of the Romanian Academy. His research focuses on the use of linguistics olympiad problems in academic research. He is a member of the International Board of the International Linguistics Olympiad and the Asia-Pacific Linguistics Olympiads and has extensive experience in training students for national and international linguistics competitions. His problems were featured in many national Linguistics Olympiads (among which, Slovenia, Romania, Republic of Moldova, Hong Kong, China, India, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan), as well as for the Asia-Pacific Linguistics Olympiad and the International Linguistics Olympiad.
Photo bySiora Photography on Unsplash