Niklas Erben Johansson
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iconiklas.bsky.social
Niklas Erben Johansson
@iconiklas.bsky.social
270 followers 370 following 4 posts

A linguist who likes cognitive biases, iconicity, typology and maps

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Psychology 28%
Business 26%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

dingemansemark.bsky.social
Mark Dingemanse @dingemansemark.bsky.social · 2d
One year ago, with Stella Punselie and Bonnie McLean: The Anatomy of Iconicity, in Open Mind doi.org/10.1162/opmi...

In which we combine iconicity ratings, experimental evidence, and structure mapping to identify & explain crosslinguistic patterns of iconic words

#iconicity #cognitivescience
Overview of the triangulation method. Structure mapping grounds the notion of iconicity, ratings capture subjective form-meaning fit, and guessability provides a baseline of guessing accuracy. For instance, Korean tuˈgɯndugɯn ‘heartbeat’ features at least three levels of iconic form-meaning correspondences (A). This predicts it should be rated as highly iconic (B) and should be more guessable than words with fewer detected correspondences (C). Consistent with this, it was rated 4.8 for subjective iconicity and guessed at 80% accuracy. Arrows indicate how measures predict (black) and inform (grey) each other.

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

lincolnproject.us
The Lincoln Project @lincolnproject.us · 4d
This picture is worth 1,000 words.

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

olaspannar.bsky.social
Ola Spännar @olaspannar.bsky.social · 4d
Moderaterna, Kristdemokraterna och de andra konservativa partierna i EPP tar nu hjälp av extremhögern i EU för att driva igenom att företag ska slippa redovisa sina klimatutsläpp

www.aktuellhallbarhet.se/ekonomi-och-...
Aktuell Hållbarhet Ny giv om omnibus - EPP kan ta stöd av ytterhögern (Bild Jörgen Warborn, moderaterna)

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

amandasokolnicki.bsky.social
Amanda Sokolnicki @amandasokolnicki.bsky.social · 11d
Skriver om att Moderaterna har bestämt sig för att göra journalister till motståndare.

www.dn.se/ledare/amand...
Amanda Sokolnicki: Moderaterna har bestämt sig för att göra journalister till motståndare
”Hotar du mig?” undrar statsministerns medarbetare. Moderaternas uppgörelse med Aftonbladet den här veckan är illavarslande.
www.dn.se

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Niklas Johansson

tommyhigham.bsky.social
Tom Higham @tommyhigham.bsky.social · 13d
So proud to see our new paper out in PNAS spearheaded by @emilypigott.bsky.social She found a tiny 46,000 yr old Neanderthal bone at Starosele (Crimea). DNA work revealed long-distance connections across Eurasia, supported by stone tool evidence @heasvienna.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Reposted by Niklas Johansson, Andréas Nilsson

skolinkvisition.bsky.social
Marcus Larsson @skolinkvisition.bsky.social · 15d
Om AB förbjuds kommer:

- eleverna finnas kvar
- lärarna finnas kvar
- lokalerna finnas kvar
- inventarierna finnas kvar
- möjligheten för annan huvudman (stiftelse, kooperativ eller kommun) att driva samma pedagogik finnas kvar

Det som försvinner är fd politiker och utländska riskkapitalister.

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Niklas Johansson

johnhuisman.bsky.social
John L.A. Huisman @johnhuisman.bsky.social · 26d
New paper out in the Journal of Language Evolution, with @bonniemclean.bsky.social and Chieh-Hsi Wu: “Combined lexical and phonotactic data resolves uncertainties in the evolutionary diversification of the Japonic language family” doi.org/10.1093/jole...
Summary below🧵1/8
Combined lexical and phonotactic data resolve uncertainties in the evolutionary diversification of the Japonic language family
Abstract. The use of phylogenetic methods in linguistics has provided new insights into the structure, age, and spread of language families. Despite increa
doi.org

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

amandasokolnicki.bsky.social
Amanda Sokolnicki @amandasokolnicki.bsky.social · Oct 8
Vad bra Moderaterna mår. (Återigen: Underlaget jag skriver utifrån är alltså officiell SCB-statistik!)

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

joniaskola.bsky.social
Joni Askola @joniaskola.bsky.social · Oct 5
Stephen Miller is one of the most dangerous and dishonest men in the world.

He holds far too much power for an unelected bureaucrat and uses it to push the United States toward a fascist dictatorship

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

ecmemes.bsky.social
DG MEME @ecmemes.bsky.social · Oct 2
One defends Europe, the other defrauds it.
One faced bullets, the other trials.

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

ecmemes.bsky.social
DG MEME @ecmemes.bsky.social · Sep 30
We were wondering...

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

johanwicklen.bsky.social
Johan Wicklén @johanwicklen.bsky.social · Sep 29
Visst, han predikade att man ska slå ”olydiga kvinnor”, men han var också under tidspress.

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

amandasokolnicki.bsky.social
Amanda Sokolnicki @amandasokolnicki.bsky.social · Sep 27
Göran Perssons bufflighet ansågs vara ett stort imageproblem, och Magdalena Andersson har tagit fram ett helt nytt sätt att prata – allt för att inte framstå som bossig. Men Ulf Kristersson? Hans strateger verkar se arrogansen som en tillgång. www.dn.se/ledare/amand...
Amanda Sokolnicki: Ulf Kristersson framstår svag – och kompenserar med arrogans
Tidigare statsministrar har försökt dölja sina nonchalanta drag. Ulf Kristersson verkar i stället vilja bygga sin valstrategi på dem.
www.dn.se

Reposted by James M. Bullock, Anders Levermann, Christopher Wright , and 4 more

georgetakei.bsky.social
George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · Sep 16
Education is the enemy of fascism.

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

fusaroli.bsky.social
Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.bsky.social · Sep 15
Why does Western Paleolithic cave art strongly prefer animal side views and often use abbreviations? Our new paper in Topics in Cognitive Science challenges long-held assumptions about these artistic choices using cognitive science experiments. A thread 1/n
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Will Jennings, Steve Peers , and 5 more

ncrenic.bsky.social
Neil Renic @ncrenic.bsky.social · Sep 14
No wonder Musk is impressed, the London march stretched all the way to the Arc de Triomphe

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

amandasokolnicki.bsky.social
Amanda Sokolnicki @amandasokolnicki.bsky.social · Sep 13
Alla Tidöpartier har förstått att det nu är var man för sig själv fram till valet. Ja, förutom L – som satsar allt på en strategi som bygger på ett väldigt jämnt valresultat.

www.dn.se/ledare/marti...
Martin Liby Troein: Busch har fattat vart Tidöpartierna är på väg – L kör på som om inget hänt
KD-ledaren, Sverigedemokraterna – ja till och med Moderaterna – bråkar nu öppet med kollegorna. Bara Liberalerna sätter laget framför jaget.
www.dn.se

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

buddhikabellana.bsky.social
Buddhika Bellana @buddhikabellana.bsky.social · Sep 5
How might stories shed light on brain function? Check out this opinion piece by @alexbarnett.bsky.social and I about the DMN and "situation models" -- our understanding of the current "state of affairs" in a story (or even experience).

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
On the left: an illustration from Brooke's 1904 rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where Little bear discovers their favourite chair is broken 😲. On the right, a sketch of what a corresponding "situation model" might contain.

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

amandasokolnicki.bsky.social
Amanda Sokolnicki @amandasokolnicki.bsky.social · Sep 3
Vad bra det går med charaden om SD:s ”öppna” nationalism. www.dn.se/ledare/i-sds...
Ledare: I SD:s Sverige kan invandrare fortfarande inte bli svenskar
SD säger sig stå för en öppen nationalism. Samtidigt är de besatta av politikers bakgrund.
www.dn.se

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · Sep 3
The Sudden Surges That Forge Evolutionary Trees
www.quantamagazine.org/the-sudden-s...
The Sudden Surges That Forge Evolutionary Trees | Quanta Magazine
An updated evolutionary model shows that living systems evolve in a split-and-hit-the-gas dynamic, where new lineages appear in sudden bursts rather than during a long marathon of gradual changes.
www.quantamagazine.org

Reposted by Scott F. Kiesling, Niklas Johansson, Wolfgang Behr

mattitiahu.bsky.social
Matthew Scarborough 𐏋 @mattitiahu.bsky.social · Sep 2
Just about ten years now in the making: The IE-CoR database paper has finally been published.

C. Anderson, M. Scarborough, [ ... 96 further authors ... ], R. Gray & P. Heggarty. 2025. The Indo-European Cognate Relationships Dataset. Scientific Data 12:1541.
The Indo-European Cognate Relationships dataset - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - The Indo-European Cognate Relationships dataset
www.nature.com

Reposted by Göran Bolin, Niklas Johansson

annaekstrom.bsky.social
Anna Ekström @annaekstrom.bsky.social · Sep 1
Om ni undrar varför inga andra länder har inspirerats av det svenska skolmarknadsexperimentet:
www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/mP...
Vill snåla på Bregott åt barnen – förskoleägarna tar ut 64,5 miljoner i vinst
Hagvidson är en av de snabbast växande och mest lönsamma förskolekoncernerna. Men trots mångmiljonvinster kräver man ransonering av smör och pålägg för barnen.
www.aftonbladet.se

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

kkshimizu1.bsky.social
Kentaro K. Shimizu @kkshimizu1.bsky.social · Aug 29
New paper out in Science Advances!
We studied language & genetic evolution using the GeLaTo database—focusing on burrowing and schismogenesis.
Link: doi.org/10.1126/scia...

Special thanks to @chiarabarbieri.bsky.social @annagraff.bsky.social @balthasarbickel.bsky.social @nccrlanguage.bsky.social
Patterns of genetic admixture reveal similar rates of borrowing across diverse scenarios of language contact
Human population contact leads to consistently similar rates of linguistic borrowing, but effects vary across linguistic features.
www.science.org

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · Aug 26
A study of 48 languages shows "fundamental stability" in intonation units across languages, people, age groups suggesting these play a central role in structuring human communication.

"A universal of speech timing: Intonation units form low-frequency rhythms"

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
A universal of speech timing: Intonation units form low-frequency rhythms | PNAS
Intonation units (IUs) are a hypothesized universal building block of human speech [W. Chafe, Discourse, Consciousness and Time: The Flow and Displ...
www.pnas.org

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

bodowinter.bsky.social
Bodo Winter @bodowinter.bsky.social · Aug 15
Super excited to share our new multimodal corpus analysis, "Iconic Words Are Associated With Iconic Gestures" 🥳

Project led by our PhD student Ell Wilding and in collab w/ @jeannettel.bsky.social & @mperlman.bsky.social:

doi.org/10.1111/cogs...
Iconic Words Are Associated With Iconic Gestures
Iconicity ratings studies have established that there are many English words which native speakers judge as “iconic,” that is, as sounding like what they mean. Here, we explore whether these iconic E...
doi.org

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

amandasokolnicki.bsky.social
Amanda Sokolnicki @amandasokolnicki.bsky.social · Aug 12
Minns ni när Fridolin tyckte att hans regerings politik var ”skit” – och KD och M förklarade hur lite förtroende det ingav för regeringen?

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

acwiek.bsky.social
Aleksandra Ćwiek @acwiek.bsky.social · Aug 11
What a pleasure it was to join the Across Acoustics podcast by Kat Setzer from @asa-news.bsky.social together with @susfuchs.bsky.social
We talked about our special issue on #iconicity and #sound #symbolism. It was lots of fun! Listen here:
www.buzzsprout.com/1537384/epis...
#langsky
#linguistics
Iconicity and Sound Symbolism - Across Acoustics
For a long time, it was believed that words were mostly arbitrary symbols. However, with advances in our ability to study speech, it has become clear that we must reconsider the fundamental relationsh...
www.buzzsprout.com

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

jacob.flamman.se
jacob 🍋 @jacob.flamman.se · Jul 10
Riksdagsledamoten Lars Beckman (M) anklagar "Bonnier News ägda medier" för att driva kampanj mot Johan Forssell (och passar även på att ljuga om deras källor)

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

patrikoksanen.bsky.social
Patrik Oksanen @patrikoksanen.bsky.social · Jul 5
France 24 har varit i Sverige för ett längre reportage om Moskvapatriarkatet, och har även varit på besök i kyrkan i Västerås. Jag är intervjuad. www.france24.com/en/europe/20...
The church by the airport: Inside Russia’s suspected spy activities in Sweden
Just about everything about the onion-domed Russian Orthodox church near the otherwise unassuming Swedish city of Vasteras seems odd: its close proximity to the airport, its taller-than-planned spire,...
www.france24.com

Reposted by Niklas Johansson

symbolicstorage.bsky.social
Michael Pleyer @symbolicstorage.bsky.social · Jun 25
🚨New Publication Alert!🚨
@thematzing.bsky.social‬ and I have written a little review of " #Language Evolution as an Interdisciplinary and Integrative Research Field."
Out now in "Contemporary #Linguistics: Integrating Languages, Communities, and Technologies" brill.com/display/book...
Chapter 19 Language Evolution as an Interdisciplinary and Integrative Research Field In: Contemporary Linguistics: Integrating Languages, Communities, and Technologies Authors: Theresa Matzinger and Michael Pleyer Type: Chapter Pages: 249–264 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004715608_021