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Ibi Baxter-Webb

@ibibw.bsky.social

Linguist with opinions; mudlark & beachcomber, co-creator of games & language podcast 'Say It Like You Play It' https://shows.acast.com/games-and-language

348 Followers  |  746 Following  |  72 Posts  |  Joined: 15.11.2024
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Posts by Ibi Baxter-Webb (@ibibw.bsky.social)

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Fragile men and fishy arguments Abstract What happens when someone tells you that you are offended, even though you do not feel offended yourself? Contested attributions of offence provide an interesting testing ground for how one’s...

New paper co-authored with Chi-HΓ© Elder and Eleni Kapogianni out now in the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict - and it’s open access!

Keywords:
offence attribution, offence-taking, moral transgressions, plausible deniability, online interaction

03.02.2026 19:57 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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3/3 Here it is in motion this morning.

06.01.2026 10:04 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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2/3 … a resident fox!

06.01.2026 10:04 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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1/3 We had to move house a couple of weeks ago. This meant saying goodbye to the neighbourhood cat we came to love - despite its best attempts at packing itself. While there is no replacement for this lap tiger, we have been delighted to find out that our new place comes with …

06.01.2026 10:04 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Neighbourhood cat is NOT helping today

07.11.2025 10:58 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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stitch from the movie lilo and stitch is crying while covering his eyes with his hands . ALT: stitch from the movie lilo and stitch is crying while covering his eyes with his hands .

Why can I not write a 2k-word summary of existing literature without first writing a 20k-work summary of that literature? #academicwriting

28.10.2025 13:59 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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8am online presentation after about 3 hours of sleep made tolerable by emotional support and lap-warming neighbourhood cat

09.10.2025 09:27 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

... discussing Searle's work without acknowledging the sexual harassment. Do I add a footnote? Or should I simply not discuss his work at all (and add a footnote saying why)?

01.10.2025 14:02 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

1/2 Just found out that John Searle died a couple of weeks ago. Also just found out about the sexual harassment...

Serious question: how do we deal with morally problematic academics? I'm currently writing a book that contains some sections on Searlean SAT. Not sure I feel comfortable...

01.10.2025 14:02 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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a screenshot of a color picker window with a rainbow of colors ALT: a screenshot of a color picker window with a rainbow of colors

Making a slideshow is 1 part sorting out content and 2 parts sorting out design 😣
#academia

29.09.2025 18:04 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
The joke and the joker | John Benjamins Abstract The ongoing and divisive discourse regarding the use of offensive humour in stand-up comedy is taking place both off-stage and on-stage: comedians use jokes that target sensitive characterist...

2/2 Featuring our own case study which looks at accountability and the life-cycle of Jimmy Carr's holocaust joke.

29.09.2025 08:24 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Volume 32, Issue 1 | John Benjamins Welcome to e-content platform of John Benjamins Publishing Company. Here you can find all of our electronic books and journals, for purchase and download or subscriber access.

1/2 πŸ“’ Special issue on offensive humour, edited by Chi-HΓ© Elder, Eleni Kapogianni and myself, out now in Pragmatics & Cognition. It contains a great range of papers which cover data from private & public settings, comedic performances, scripted TV dialogue, online platforms, and political discourse

29.09.2025 08:24 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Puzzles, puns & politics in Blue Prince [SILYPI | podcast | e12]
YouTube video by Say It Like You Play It Puzzles, puns & politics in Blue Prince [SILYPI | podcast | e12]

YouTube version up now as well!

31.08.2025 12:37 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Blue Prince: puzzles, puns, and politics

πŸ“’ New episode of Say It Like You Play It

@indiegameclinic.bsky.social & I talk about the puzzle adventure game Blue Prince (@dogubomb.bsky.social)

We discuss:

πŸ’¬ The game's world & lore
πŸ’¬ Word play in puzzles, as clues, & for fun
πŸ’¬ Colour semiotics
πŸ’¬ Sign versus noise ratio
πŸ’¬ (Un)translatability

30.08.2025 12:34 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

Thank you!

31.07.2025 10:42 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Neighbourhood cat is helping with a job application today.

31.07.2025 10:00 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Neighbourhood cat helping me clean and sort some of my recent finds #mudlarking

27.07.2025 07:57 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Semiotics and (video) games Say It Like You Play It Β· Episode

πŸ“’ New episode of Say It Like You Play It!

@indiegameclinic.bsky.social & I talk about the semiotics of (video) games:

πŸ’¬ Definitions & different types of signs
πŸ’¬ Multi-modality
πŸ’¬ Genre-specific & genre-independent semiotics
πŸ’¬ Signs vs. ludemes
πŸ’¬ Examples like UI, rarity colours, & controls

01.07.2025 11:19 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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it looks like a pixel art of a flower with a skull on it 's head . ALT: it looks like a pixel art of a flower with a skull on it 's head .

My partner, who is a game designer, just described my severe pollen allergies as "being weak to flowers". Savage but accurate.

23.06.2025 08:14 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

YouTube version up now

06.06.2025 11:54 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Today, the neighbourhood cat is acting as assistant of assistant managing editor for the journal of politeness research.

05.06.2025 08:40 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Chants of Sennaar & Sethian reactions: what makes a good language puzzle game? Say It Like You Play It Β· Episode

πŸŽ™οΈ new episode of Say It Like you Play It

@indiegameclinic.bsky.social & I discuss language puzzle games Chants of Sennaar & Sethian. Topics include:

πŸ“œ language puzzle & translation mechanics
πŸ“œ embedding conlangs in game-worlds
πŸ“œ player vs. player-character knowledge
πŸ“œ complexity of conlangs

04.06.2025 11:36 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Is this a little guy or am I imagining it? #fieldwalking #mudlarking

18.05.2025 10:44 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Language, character design, and world building Say It Like You Play It Β· Episode

2/2 You can listen on all major podcast platforms

Features discussions of research by Danielle Burrell Kim, Emily Villanueva, and @astridensslin.bsky.social

29.04.2025 07:26 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

1/2 πŸŽ™οΈ new episode of Say It Like you Play it

@indiegameclinic.bsky.social and I discuss language in character creation & world building:

❕language ideologies
❕characters with accents & speech impediments
❕conlangs & orthography
❕Dragon Age, Pillars of Eternity, Cyberpunk 2077, Disco Elysium

29.04.2025 07:26 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Afternoon sun magic β€οΈπŸ§‘πŸ’›πŸ’šπŸ’™πŸ’œ

07.04.2025 16:57 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Chair fine, lap better?

03.04.2025 09:17 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Neighbourhood cat has their own office chair now.

03.04.2025 08:42 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

2/2 @indiegameclinic.bsky.social and I discuss:

πŸ’¬ Humour, puns, & wordplay
πŸ’¬ Lexical differences between rule & flavour texts
πŸ’¬ Functions & forms of keywords & card names
πŸ’¬ Localization & Japanese Kanji
πŸ’¬ Communicative affordances & limitations of the emote system
πŸ’¬ Players' take on "bad manners"

02.04.2025 09:02 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Hearthstone deep dive: when game studies meets linguistics Say It Like You Play It Β· Episode

1/2 πŸŽ™οΈ Episode 8 of Say It Like You Play It is out on YouTube & major podcast platforms: open.spotify.com/episode/7KmB...

This month we take a close look at Blizzard's online collectible card game 'Hearthstone' and three research papers which study the game in relation to language and communication.

02.04.2025 09:02 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0