Masha Esipova

A large electronic display on a wall in a museum. The display is divided into smaller squares with neon texts. Some of the linguistics-relevant ones are: 'REMEMBER YOUR ORIGINAL SYNTAX', 'REMEMBER THE VOICE INSIDE THE ECHO', 'REMEMBER LANGUAGE IS OLDER THAN MEMORY', 'REMEMBER TO LIFT YOUR VOICE'.

did nyu linguists make an arrangement with moma for nels56 or something? btw, my talk on friday is entitled 'the loud silence of echo' and is about echo questions, so 🤔 #linguistics

A draft of my SALT35 proceedings paper now on lingbuzz: ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/009...

I discuss confirmatory uses of additive particles (A: It's hot. B: It is too.), complementing the discussion of their refutational uses (A: It isn't hot. B: It is too!) & propose a unified semantics #linguistics

excellent stuff, thoroughly enjoyed all the 4 hours of it. a take-down of the book 'the war on science', which is a compilation of, well, let's say essays, written by 39 "cancelled" academics (featuring, among others, our favorite freedom of speech warrior steven pinker)

In defense of exclamatory force This commentary paper is a response to the target article by Andreas Trotzke and Anastasia Giannakidou, who argue that neither exclamatives like How smart Anya is! , nor declarative exclamations like ...

New paper: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

tl;dr: Exclamatives like 'How smart Anya is!' do not in fact behave in the discourse in the same way as declarative assertions like 'I am amazed at how smart Anya is' and therefore should not be analyzed as having the same semantics. #linguistics

A bathroom door. On the left there is a sign saying 'BR02 RESTROOM'. On the right there is a sign saying 'WOMEN'S RESTROOM'.

for women who are also bros 👊 #salt35

A sign on a metal gate saying 'PLEASE DO NOT POSTER ON THIS GATE Thank you'

so i take it this is not the salt poster session #salt35

Link to the survey: nyu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... 3/3

There is no monetary reward for this, but you'll forever have my gratitude. If you have any further comments to share with me, please DM me, but please do not comment under this post so as not to bias any other responders.

Please share widely, too! 2/3

Native English speakers! Please help me (and linguistics at large) by doing the (very short) survey at the link below. You'll need to evaluate six exchanges after reading the instructions, which describe the general set-up in which these exchanges occur. 1/3

Thanks everyone for your willingness to help. I have a place for tonight. Love you all ❤

I NEEF HELP URGENTLY. Do I have anyone in LA who I can crash with tonight? It's a very long story, but I need help.

A sign near a water reservoir featuring five prohibitory pictograms. In four of the five, the depiction of what's prohibited is behind the backslash symbol, but in one of them, a depiction of a dog is in front of it.

A sign in a park featuring a depiction of a person walking a dog. The text below it says: 'Leash pets. Obey scoop'.

1. dogs always take the widest possible scope
2. OBEY SCOOP 👮

A computer monitor showing the cover of the ebook 'Why We Fear AI' by Hagen Blix and Ingeborg Glimmer

got it!

A picture of the back of a washing machine cleaner bottle viewed through Google Lens and ostensibly translated from Spanish to English with the translated text saying: "You are my God To be honest, we are all right. We are all right. We are all right. God, God willing, we will be with you forever. We will be with you forever. God is with you. Let us be the God of the Lord. God is with you: Let us be the God of the Lord. The wind is 60°. Wind! Wind is the wind, the wind is strong, the wind is strong, the wind is strong. Decan-1-ol ethoxylated lactic acid - decan-1-ol ethoxylated lactic acid. Lactic acid; Decan-1-ol ethoxylated God bless you: God bless you. God bless you. God bless you: God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. To the king of the east: To the king of the east. To the king of the east: To the king of the east. God is with you, God is with you, God is with you God God is with you. God is with you: For God's sake/ For God's sake. For God's sake. 500 The price'

that feeling when you forget to switch languages in google translate and accidentally cause our ai overlords to speak in tongues 👹👹👹

YouTube video by Masha Esipova V-NYI #10 (July 10-25, 2025), teaser - Masha Esipova (Bar-Ilan University)

the v-nyi 10 applications are open: forms.gle/3zLnxy6toxBg...
for more details about the school: nyispb.org
this time around, i'm teaching 'intonation and meaning', here's a little teaser: youtu.be/KoX_k854OSM

A curious brown mantis standing in a pot next to a small olive tree growing in this pot.

A brown mantis in a small potted olive tree, looking like one of its branches.

A brown mantis hanging upside down in a small potted olive tree.

motya is friends with liv now (by which i mean he's been pretending to be one of her branches since yesterday)

A brown mantis on a brown wicker chair outside on balcony. In the background, there's a small potted olive tree.

he hung out with me while i drank my coffee for a bit, but then at some point, while i was distracted, he disappeared. i thought he'd flown away. but turns out he didn't and is now hanging out on one of my balcony chairs (still top notch camouflage) 2/2

A brown mantis on the edge of a coffee table outside on a balcony. In the background, you can see a small potted olive tree, a coffee cup, and a tupperware lid.

A brown mantis on a brown coffee cup on a coffee table outside on a balcony.

motya update: i figured he wouldn't survive on my shades, and i didn't want to turn him into an actual pet. so i brought him to the balcony, offering him two flies for the road. he didn't eat the flies, trying instead to climb me (successfully) and drink my coffee (unsuccessfully) 1/2

meet motya* the mantis!

so two days ago i noticed this guy hanging out on the bamboo shades (perfect camouflage) in my living room. and today i decided to feed him. so i gave him a dead fly and he took it and ate it!

*i named him motya because mantis -> matthew/matvey -> motya, i'm bad at this

---both are bad and ineffective.

ok, not gonna proof-read the above and not gonna engage further, sorry. nothing against you personally, i swear, and i hope we're cool---but you did, as we say in russian, step on my favorite blister =) 16/16

(or even just of threat thereof) on israeli academics. and if anything, this entrenches and radicalizes them in a way that goes in the exact opposite direction of what the boycott proponents envisage.

3. "the argument for academic boycotts is stronger than the one for broad economic sanctions" 15/n

who apparently have so much fucking "relative power", help? man, putin must've been devastated that those rsl data were not collected...

also also---and i probably shouldn't be writing this on social media, but fuck it---i'm actually currently observing the effect of academic boycotts 14/n

of non-collaboration" or whatever fucked-up name the dfg came up with. now, tell me, what "most vulnerable" were helped by that? who were the "people w/relative power/comfort" in this equation?

oh, and again, did it help? did the massive blanket boycotts of the evil russian academics, 13/n

a plan to collect russian sign language data in russia, with the help of some russia-based academics. but by then, germany had already blanket-banned all academic collaboration with russian universities, so those grant applicants had to scrap that part of their plan and sign a "declaration 12/n

is it another one of those 'well, if we just fuck over the already fucked over russians, maybe they'll rise up and, like, do a revolution or something'? good fucking lord...

incidentally, i was on a dfg grant review committee a couple years ago, and one grant application originally included 11/n

have been hit with blanket academic boycotts, unlike americans---people "with relative power/comfort"? are you fucking kidding me? "educated/mobile folks, who moreover contribute more to international "legitimacy" branding", my ass. and which "most vulnerable" are they supposed to help and how? 10/n

power/comfort so that they they eventually see that it's no longer even in their own self-interest, narrowly construed, to lend social capital/legitimacy to unjust institutions"--who are you even talking about? who are the people with "relative power/comfort"? are russian academics--who actually 9/n

conferences and wherever else you fucking want---because no academic boycotts or travel bans will ever apply to you and because most of you have never even had to apply for a fucking visa ever in your lives.

2. "help the most vulnerable by stigmatizing/shaming/isolating those w/ relative 8/n

academic boycotts only applies to non-western countries, further isolating academics from those countries.

in fact, in reality, someone like me will now be getting hit both by academic boycotts and by trump's fucking travel ban. while ya'll will get to sit there and theorize and go to 7/n

how not a single us conference will get canceled after this upcoming travel ban gets introduced---just like they didn't during the previous one.

oh, also, by the way: did it help? did that glow cancellation help? how are we doing, yaknow, israel-wise?

point is: *in reality*, the practice of 6/n