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David Adger

@davidadger.bsky.social

syntax and other stuff, mainly more linguistics and cogsci but occasional queerness, poetry, cats and @ans.bsky.social πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ https://davidadger.org

2,499 Followers  |  1,461 Following  |  352 Posts  |  Joined: 03.06.2023
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Posts by David Adger (@davidadger.bsky.social)

Little red dragon with blue horns and golden wings, surrounded by gold foliage, illustration from illuminated MS.

Little red dragon with blue horns and golden wings, surrounded by gold foliage, illustration from illuminated MS.

A little marginalia.
Dragonlet, Book of Hours, Paris c.1410.

02.03.2026 04:40 β€” πŸ‘ 164    πŸ” 33    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
Hares boxing surrounded with leaves, painting.

Hares boxing surrounded with leaves, painting.

March Hares, Vicky Yeates, 2012.

02.03.2026 04:27 β€” πŸ‘ 132    πŸ” 25    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

we should also point out Oxbridge have the resources to hire people from other institutions who find their own institutions struggling to support SHAPE disciplines in a situation of falling enrollments. There's an old Yes Minister quip: we must protect Britain's great universities, ... both of them

02.03.2026 07:59 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
An array of 9 purple discs on a blue background. Figure from Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt.

An array of 9 purple discs on a blue background. Figure from Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt.

A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue.

The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.

From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...

24.09.2025 10:16 β€” πŸ‘ 768    πŸ” 295    πŸ’¬ 33    πŸ“Œ 53

Hannah Spencer walking into Westminster, sucking her teeth, tutting, and muttering "tell you what, you've had some cowboys in here."

27.02.2026 06:22 β€” πŸ‘ 2727    πŸ” 704    πŸ’¬ 30    πŸ“Œ 24

"These centuries-old connections between language and the environment challenge dominant views of how best to protect habitats. Scottish Gaelic’s vitality as a living language would surely suffer if fishing were to be curtailed, and much of the knowledge bound up in it...would be lost too."

21.02.2026 14:40 β€” πŸ‘ 53    πŸ” 18    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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I imagine it was extremely disturbing

18.02.2026 18:14 β€” πŸ‘ 7735    πŸ” 827    πŸ’¬ 272    πŸ“Œ 110

ah, the wonderful right-hand head rule!

19.02.2026 21:07 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

word

19.02.2026 21:06 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Comic depictions of the first page of research papers in the language sciences, with titles that include the following: 
Just what the hell is a word anyway?
See how this single cognitive process or brain area or neural oscillation or gene explains language!
Based on the shapes of these old bones, Homo erectus could sing .... don't @ me.
A baby looked at one thing more than the other, now we know the secret to grammar.
If you think about it, every language is fundamentally the same, amirite?
We taught a load of undergrads a made-up language, lol.
On the staggering diversity of the many languages across the world.
Remember the thing you said only humans could do, here's a video of a monkey / dolphin / corvid / octopus / honeybee doing it.
I trained this AI with 80 billion tweets and it became head-writer for phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Comic depictions of the first page of research papers in the language sciences, with titles that include the following: Just what the hell is a word anyway? See how this single cognitive process or brain area or neural oscillation or gene explains language! Based on the shapes of these old bones, Homo erectus could sing .... don't @ me. A baby looked at one thing more than the other, now we know the secret to grammar. If you think about it, every language is fundamentally the same, amirite? We taught a load of undergrads a made-up language, lol. On the staggering diversity of the many languages across the world. Remember the thing you said only humans could do, here's a video of a monkey / dolphin / corvid / octopus / honeybee doing it. I trained this AI with 80 billion tweets and it became head-writer for phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

To accompany all those Bluesky science/academia #starterpacks, how about we also share introductions to the literature of our different fields. I present here a handy guide to main types of papers in the language sciences (inspired by the amazing @xkcd.com).
#language #linguistics #science #academia

13.11.2024 20:27 β€” πŸ‘ 431    πŸ” 113    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 25

Hmm. Yeah I don’t think anything I said was particularly incompatible with your comment so I don’t think I did misunderstand. But I am skeptical you can factor out the language/reasoning stuff from the content given current architectures. I think you’d lose robustness in those areas

17.02.2026 23:16 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

agree hallucinate is a bad term (I was using it as it's what the authors use). Do you mean misunderstandings in the paper, or that I had misunderstood it? Or that because LLMs are language models, we shouldn't expect them to automatically have a connection with reality? If the later, I agree

16.02.2026 13:59 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

We know the Code of Practice is wrong in law. But we need your help to make sure it gets sent back. Write to your MP with our quick and easy tool, here πŸ‘‡

13.02.2026 16:35 β€” πŸ‘ 129    πŸ” 61    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

The most insane thing is that "British (and Irish) citizens who are also citizens of another country will be ineligible for an ETA, meaning they can no longer use a foreign passport to enter the UK."

13.02.2026 15:33 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me Summary: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into acceptin…

"An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into accepting its changes into a mainstream python library." Pubpeer, journals are next!
theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-...

13.02.2026 10:03 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...

When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: β€œCerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

09.02.2026 23:42 β€” πŸ‘ 3774    πŸ” 2084    πŸ’¬ 116    πŸ“Œ 616
10 January 1993
Caller (w): 'Can you tell me about Clone Zone?'
Me: 'yes it's a shop selling everything from lycra shorts + underwear to leather harnesses + nipple clamps. Predominantly
gay boys but some women use it. Why, what do you want?' (thinks she's looking to buy a dildo)
Caller: Well I've just found an access receipt in my husband's pocket!'
!!:

10 January 1993 Caller (w): 'Can you tell me about Clone Zone?' Me: 'yes it's a shop selling everything from lycra shorts + underwear to leather harnesses + nipple clamps. Predominantly gay boys but some women use it. Why, what do you want?' (thinks she's looking to buy a dildo) Caller: Well I've just found an access receipt in my husband's pocket!' !!:

Reading @tashwalker.bsky.social and @adamzmith.bsky.social β€˜s amazing new book The Logbooks and this call to Gay Switchboard they quote had me in hysterics #lgbthistories

07.02.2026 10:52 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

05.02.2026 11:50 β€” πŸ‘ 32251    πŸ” 13855    πŸ’¬ 589    πŸ“Œ 1599

yeah, metonymic extension of word meanings via function does not imply an ontological shift (do submarines swim - not in English, but planes do fly!) There's also a confusion between simulation and theory which I think interacts with this

03.02.2026 15:24 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
REFORM ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS 
Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ
X.com
finds it difficult to believe that Manchester finished above Rome, Madrid & London in the most liveable cities list (Vancouver #1)
09:36 β€’ 02/11/2009

REFORM ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ X.com finds it difficult to believe that Manchester finished above Rome, Madrid & London in the most liveable cities list (Vancouver #1) 09:36 β€’ 02/11/2009

Oops

29.01.2026 10:35 β€” πŸ‘ 192    πŸ” 47    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 2
A red squirrel on the ground. It almost looks like it is in superhero pose with one front paw and one back paw on the ground. The other front and back paws are raised in the air, its head is forward ready to run towards the camera.

A red squirrel on the ground. It almost looks like it is in superhero pose with one front paw and one back paw on the ground. The other front and back paws are raised in the air, its head is forward ready to run towards the camera.

What we all need to see is a red squirrel in a power pose.
You're welcome.

29.01.2026 08:21 β€” πŸ‘ 652    πŸ” 167    πŸ’¬ 15    πŸ“Œ 18

What makes it more challenging is that "convict" optionally takes "of Y" as a complement, so your brain reaches "convict", decides it's a simple transitive verb, does that long object, then has to reanalyse "convict". It's sometimes called a 'garden-path' effect. Ok, too much syntax for the morning!

29.01.2026 08:21 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I think it's: "who convicted [X] of murder", where X= "the policeman who kneeled on GF's neck". It's grammatical, but just very difficult to process because "of murder" is so structurally distant from "convict". bw, your friendly neighbourhood syntactician :)

29.01.2026 07:41 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image Post image Post image

Illustrations from the beguiling Clavis Artis, a German alchemical manuscript which claims to hail from the 13th century and have pages made from dragon skin: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/clavis-artis

28.01.2026 20:46 β€” πŸ‘ 161    πŸ” 49    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
Photo of Lindsay Lohan with jungle background

Below, Entertainment--Lindsay Lohan bitten by snake on holiday in Thailand

Above, I don't understand how a snake even begins to organiseva trip like that.

Photo of Lindsay Lohan with jungle background Below, Entertainment--Lindsay Lohan bitten by snake on holiday in Thailand Above, I don't understand how a snake even begins to organiseva trip like that.

One more time, syntax matters. I do hope the snake had a good time, though.

25.01.2026 18:43 β€” πŸ‘ 275    πŸ” 47    πŸ’¬ 16    πŸ“Œ 0

I reckon it would be a good move for cinemas in the US to be showing the original Downfall film now. Magnificent film with huge relevance for today

27.01.2026 08:54 β€” πŸ‘ 34    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
A large snowy owl glides across a washed-blue night sky, wings outstretched and head angled downward as if hunting. Far below, a dark, blocky city skyline fades into mist, with scattered points of light suggesting windows and streetlamps. The contrast between the silent, ghost-white bird and the smudged urban haze gives the scene a quiet, watchful moodβ€”night made visible as a single hovering presence.

A large snowy owl glides across a washed-blue night sky, wings outstretched and head angled downward as if hunting. Far below, a dark, blocky city skyline fades into mist, with scattered points of light suggesting windows and streetlamps. The contrast between the silent, ghost-white bird and the smudged urban haze gives the scene a quiet, watchful moodβ€”night made visible as a single hovering presence.

β€œWhen it draws near to witching time of night.”

(Robert Blair)

🎨 Charles Livingston Bull

#owlishmonday

26.01.2026 09:00 β€” πŸ‘ 49    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Covers of 20 books published in 2025

Covers of 20 books published in 2025

New blog post "Achievements 2025" userblogs.fu-berlin.de/langsci-pres...

27.01.2026 08:22 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
Sajid Javid: why I wouldn’t let people like my parents into the UK now.

Sajid Javid: why I wouldn’t let people like my parents into the UK now.

I really understand very little about the current version of reality.

25.01.2026 22:26 β€” πŸ‘ 1323    πŸ” 224    πŸ’¬ 146    πŸ“Œ 66

Same story over and over. These larpers - Kirkegard, Pesta et al - pumping out the same effluence with their strategy - exposed by @harryshukman.bsky.social + @hopenothate.org.uk - to normalise and spread scientific racism. They KNOW it's bullshit too.

Read this:
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/o...

25.01.2026 11:39 β€” πŸ‘ 143    πŸ” 66    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1