Ryan M. Nefdt

A Reader's Guide to Classic Papers in Formal Semantics This volume contains 21 new and original contributions to the study of formal semantics, written by distinguished experts.

This book is amazing! Cleo Condoravi's chapter is on Kratzer on modals: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

cuisses de grenouille for breakfast? Bold

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The Dynamic semantics school (like Frank Veltman's work) has some interesting stuff on the semantics of mixed conjunctions (like imperative + declarative) and so on.

Have you looked at Liebesman and Magidor's property versatility view? It lives in related territory (they also have a bunch of papers on it) global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Compositionality
by Ryan M. Nefdt and Christopher Potts

oecs.mit.edu/pub/e222wyjy...

Pleased to announce that my Scientific American piece with @hikemix.bsky.social and James Humphries was one of this year's winners of the @apaphilosophy.bsky.social Op-Ed Contest.
See our cringe bios and the other winners here:
www.apaonline.org/page/2025pri...

I really can't believe this volume is finally approaching the light of day with @oupphilosophy.bsky.social! What a journey, what amazing partners, and what a truly excellent cast. Here's a teaser trailer for what's in the book. Get excited!

I really can't believe this volume is finally approaching the light of day with @oupphilosophy.bsky.social! What a journey, what amazing partners, and what a truly excellent cast. Here's a teaser trailer for what's in the book. Get excited!

It has been so so fun to think with some of my favorite scientists about what it means to understand!

Yes indeed. If I were inclined to anthropomorphise (and I'm not of course!), I would think of them as machine mnemonics

This one was set in Cape Town and surprisingly didn't just film in the picturesque spots but went into the real parts too (close to where I grew up).

Thanks David! We've got a new version of the paper, where we cut to the chase more quickly :) ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...

Congrats old friend! I really enjoyed the book

Looks good! Can't wait to read it

It was a great honour to present the Toyama International Philosophy seminar @ Waseda University in Tokyo.
Spoke on Linguistic Relativity, LLMs, & Cognition. Excellent discussion after at the home of the first ever robot WABOT-1! #Philsky #AI

The Philosophy of Linguistics Cambridge Core - Philosophy of Science - The Philosophy of Linguistics

Get it while it's hot (and free)! cup.org/46WiElu This book tells a story of what if the philosophy of science didn't start with the study of atoms or the cosmos but human language. #philsky #booksky

Like philosophy of linguistics and free stuff? Then boy do I have an opportunity for you!
This book - by my friend @ryannefdt.bsky.social - is available for download for free for the next two weeks. Get on it!
#PhilSky #Linguistics

All good my friend! Thank you so much for the post!

The Philosophy of Linguistics Cambridge Core - Philosophy of Science - The Philosophy of Linguistics

Get it while it's hot (and free)! cup.org/46WiElu This book tells a story of what if the philosophy of science didn't start with the study of atoms or the cosmos but human language. #philsky #booksky

The Philosophy of Linguistics Cambridge Core - Philosophy of Science - The Philosophy of Linguistics

Hey Joe! It's this one that's free access for 2 weeks but happy if people check out the other one too :) cup.org/46WiElu

Be sure to check our symposium on non-human language (from all angles!) at @ishpssb2025.bsky.social #ISHPSSB2025 #philsci virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/event/73530/...

The Philosophy of Theoretical Linguistics Cambridge Core - Grammar and Syntax - The Philosophy of Theoretical Linguistics

Covering a wide range of fields and theoretical perspectives, this book provides a novel philosophical account of theoretical linguistics.

The Philosophy of Theoretical Linguistics by @ryannefdt.bsky.social

#LangSky #Philosophy 💙📚 #Linguistiics

cup.org/3YKingP

See you tomorrow, San Diego!

I see your point. I think some structure of could be captured with textual compression. It might not directly map onto a competence grammar but for predictive purposes (Dennett's initial idea behind real patterns) performance is a guide

The Platonic Representation Hypothesis We argue that representations in AI models, particularly deep networks, are converging. First, we survey many examples of convergence in the literature: over time and across multiple domains, the ways...

This one outlines the original idea: arxiv.org/abs/2405.07987. Really makes me more confident that there are real patterns and ML systems can track them to a certain extent. Of course industry practices and tools also add to the potential converges

Linguistic Relativity: An Essential Guide to Past Debates and Future Prospects Abstract. Does your language distinguish between dark and light blues? Do your verbs require a report on where and how you got your information? Can you ea

If anyone is in the Edmonton area tomorrow, Jeff Pelletier and I will be chatting about our new book academic.oup.com/book/59889?l... @oupphilosophy.bsky.social at Edmonton's oldest bookstore Audrey's: audreys.ca/events. Do stop by! @audreysbooksyeg.bsky.social

Language

Thanks to Evan Kidd, @mcxfrank.bsky.social & @asifamajid.bsky.social (Eds) for organizing the awesome *Open* Encyc. of Cog. Sci. and entrusting me with/ the honor of penning the entry on "Language" (in < 3500 words, so do see other entries for much, MUCH more!)
oecs.mit.edu/pub/ho9e9c80...

Philosophers: spread the word!! Full-time research postdoc, 3 year job in St Andrews-Arché within the Leverhulme-funded WIKI project:

www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Apply by clicking the link above, *check* the Further Particulars attachment there for details. Deadline: May 2.