Gretchen McCulloch

The LingComm Grants are back!

These grants started in 2020, as "hey let's help get lingcomm projects going during lockdown"

They've since run in 2022 and 2024, and thanks to generous folks we've always given out more than expected

But they only work if people apply!!! Please share this!!

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out.

As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class.

Here's what happened:

I'm sorry, I thought I was prepared for this video from the incredulous tweets but I was not, I'm snort-laughing in Montreal right now (where it's not even that cold compared to you guys! coldest I've ever been in was -65⁰ C/-85⁰ F in Minneapolis during 2014 polar vortex, which gives me SOME cred)

The LingComm Grants are back!

These grants started in 2020, as "hey let's help get lingcomm projects going during lockdown"

They've since run in 2022 and 2024, and thanks to generous folks we've always given out more than expected

But they only work if people apply!!! Please share this!!

"Well, Child, yesterday I used one from Superbad, from 13 years before you were born, to reference a complaint about copper ingots from 3790 years before you were born".

Also then they can mock us mercilessly for being like, ‘well, I’m a classicist, I like “all your base are belong to us” from 19 years before your birth.’ The equivalent of my parents being into something from 1959

I don’t know that this is my favorite but it does feel like the only correct answer to this assignment

This is simultaneously brilliant and adorable and also I am shrivelling up into a withered husk

Today I learned that apparently kids in school are being given the assignment "go home and ask your parents what their favourite meme is and write a report about it"

Great news from people I've long enjoyed reading/listening to for insightful takes about fandom

This is gorgeous! Like flying over a fantasy landscape!

It's slang and wordplay, for starters. But the repeated formula (multiple clipping + y-suffixation) makes me wonder if it's a snowclone too – see snowclones.org/about/

The split pattern (see my next post) gives me pause. Any #linguistics folk want to chime in?

I may have to write about this. [1/3]

Nice little structural ambiguity for the #linguistics feed

Linguistsky, has anyone encountered a name for the "menty b" "sunny d" style abbreviation yet?

2025 year in review In 2025, Lauren Gawne and I reached our 100th episode of Lingthusiasm, our podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! It’s a special format featuring 100 fun things about linguistic…

My year in review post for 2025!

If you want to know if you missed any funny posts or other things I did that went up this year, you can now browse em all in one spot!
gretchenmcculloch.com/2026/01/19/2...

2025 year in review In 2025, Lauren Gawne and I reached our 100th episode of Lingthusiasm, our podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! It’s a special format featuring 100 fun things about linguistic…

My year in review post for 2025!

If you want to know if you missed any funny posts or other things I did that went up this year, you can now browse em all in one spot!
gretchenmcculloch.com/2026/01/19/2...

Apparently info neige is paid this winter! Shockingly!

Oh it runs for a while so you have one last chance rush out and move your car before they tow it to a random side street and you have to wander around and try to find it, even more fun

Every day of the winter I thank my lucky stars I do not own a car in this city

Nice examples of toddler overgeneralization in English past tense in this banger

Let me introduce you to the account that gives regular updates as to whether Hildegard von Bingen is dead bsky.app/profile/hild...

62: Cool things about scales and implicature Lingthusiasm Episode 62: Cool things about scales and implicature We can plot the words we use to describe temperature on a scale: cold, cool, warm, hot. It’s not as precise as a temperature scale ...

Don't know what scalar implicature is but now intrigued that it can be used for jokes?

Check out this @lingthusiasm.com episode!
lingthusiasm.com/post/6682360...

"More than 3 years ago, the famous Roman emperor Julius Caesar passed away" written over a marble bust of Caesar.

New favourite example of scalar implicature

YES

October, November, & December 2025: Plays, poems, and preserves This fall was a good season for literature. I took a trip to the Stratford Festival in Ontario to see live productions of Goblins Oedipus, Dangerous Liaisons, and Sense and Sensibility.  I enj…

The latest edition of my quarterly newsletter is up!
gretchenmcculloch.com/2026/01/17/o...

This is a fun thread!

Bonus fun fact: the etymology of MINute is the same as minUTE, ie the first small part of an hour

A second is the second small part, and before we had milliseconds we had thirds! www.etymonline.com/word/minute

yes hi I think you've found it, anyone want to help this person?

It was easier than I was expecting!

Update, now have my handle as my domain (and @lingthusiasm.com's at the same time) and can report the official instructions were easy and worked great!

(and hopefully submitting a request to relink my badge isn't too annoying)

Mother Tongue: A Memoir book by Sara Nović Buy a cheap copy of Mother Tongue: A Memoir book by Sara Nović. The New York Times bestselling author of True Biz retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community--and seeks to u...

Ooo thanks for sharing!

Just preordered!!
www.thriftbooks.com/w/mother-ton...