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  Skeptical of diachronic semantics because you can't ask speakers of, say, Middle English, for truth value judgments? In this new (paywalled) paper we show how the conditions diachronic semantic change can be tested using experimental synchronic methods: https://doi.org/10.1075/elt.00065.erb Preprint: https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/lehrstuhl/gergel/publications_gergel/Modal_development_experiments.pdf

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  Ever wondered why we order double martinis and double espressos, but not double lemonades or double hot chocolates? New paper out by E. Moon that argues the semantics of cocktails and coffee drinks have a particular measured part that can be doubled that other drinks do not. Lots of fun data and food for thought in this paper: https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.23419

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  RE: https://mastodon.social/@europeanspodcast/116214990870495197 Finally got around to this great (as always) episode of The Europeans about Mastodon, and reminded me to say thanks again to @headword for hosting this instance!

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  RE: https://toot.cafe/@baldur/116476110099547066 Looks like using AI doesn't just make you dumber, it makes your work dumber too

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  here recommending The Vocal Fries podcast episode Algospeak (Ep 142). They discuss the topic of how people adjust their language to get around or harness the algorithms with Adam Aleksic, author of a recent book on the topic. Edit: check it out here! https://www.buzzsprout.com/1930383/episodes/17650624-algospeak

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  Just read: The material making of language as practice of global domination and control: continuations from European colonialism to AI By Bettina Migge & Britta Schneider TLDR: the sorts of rhetoric and ideology seen in enterprises in the european colonial era (1400-1960), are seen in the AI-pushing tech industry today https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-025-02389-5

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  2x small grants won (1 rejected), 2x large grants submitted (1 rejected) 3x journal papers published, 3x proceedings papers published, 4x invited talks given, 5x conference presentations given (1 rejected), 5x reviewer of jounal papers 3x classes taught, 1x conference co-organizer infinitely on the job market #IchBinHanna links to my work at https://kerbach2.github.io/

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  Happy to report that my paper, Transitioning developmental paths in modal flavors: an experimental pilot study, co-authored with Remus Gergel, has been accepted to Evolutionary Linguistic Theory. In this paper we introduce a new experimental paradigm for testing pathways of diachronic development which shed light on the conditions necessary for semantic change. Pre-final draft: https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/lehrstuhl/gergel/publications_gergel/Modal_development_experiments.pdf

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  “if you want to boost the productivity of your scientists 10x, you have to be willing to increase their funding 10x (or something like that). Of course, this is much harder and much more expensive than simply buying them $20/month Claude subscriptions” Emin Orhan https://severelytheoretical.wordpress.com/2026/02/13/no-agentic-ai-will-not-massively-boost-productivity-in-scientific-research-heres-how-to-actually-boost-scientific-productivity/ #science #AI

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  “leading AI models perform worse for users with lower English proficiency, less formal education, and non-US origins” -MIT Media Lab https://news.mit.edu/2026/study-ai-chatbots-provide-less-accurate-information-vulnerable-users-0219

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  A friend was suprised to see "bolt" in the category "eat voraciously" in yesterdays NYT Games' Connections, so I did a little corpus study: Of 100 randomly selected occurences of "bolt" in COCA, 0 mean 'to eat' Of the 123 occurrences of "bolted down" in COCA, 4 mean 'to eat' and 1 'to drink'. So I'm not suprised he was suprised. #appliedlinguistics #corpusli...

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  Hoping to get some thoughts on the highest regarded #linguistics journals by #linguists regardless of rankings. Maybe drop the name of two or three in a reply?