Randy Allen Harris
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randyallenharris.bsky.social
Randy Allen Harris
@randyallenharris.bsky.social

Linguistics, rhetoric, cognitive science, ontologies, constructions, …

Philosophy 22%
Psychology 22%

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The newly minted Dr. Kyle Gerber and sidekick. @uwaterlooarts.bsky.social @uw-english.bsky.social

Great new article by Geoff Pullum on Post, Chomsky, and the roots of generative grammar, written with his customary verve, depth, and precision. doi.org/10.1075/hl.0.... #histlx #Linguistics #LangSky
The prehistory of generative grammar and Chomsky’s debt to Emil Post | John Benjamins
Summary Generative linguistics has a longer prehistory than most linguists realize. The rewriting systems that Chomsky brought into linguistics as generative grammars were explicitly defined more than...
doi.org

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Photos featuring some of our proud UWaterloo English MA and PhD grads who received their degrees this Saturday. Congratulations!

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Episode 49 of our podcast is out 🤩

James McElvenny (@jamesmcelvenny.bsky.social) interviews Fritz Newmeyer (University of Washington) about linguistics, history of linguistics, and politics.

🔗 hiphilangsci.net/2025/10/01/p...

#Histlx
Podcast episode 49: Fritz Newmeyer
In this interview, Fritz Newmeyer discusses linguistics, history of linguistics, and politics.
hiphilangsci.net

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A new podcast episode 🤩

Randy Harris (@randyallenharris.bsky.social) speaks with James McElvenny (@jamesmcelvenny.bsky.social) about his recent book A History of Modern Linguistics.

hiphilangsci.net/2025/09/15/p...

#Histlx
Podcast episode 48: A History of Modern Linguistics
In this interview, Randy Harris interviews James McElvenny about his recent book A History of Modern Linguistics.
hiphilangsci.net

For one thing, don’t report every individual piece of shit or the most colourful & flaming piece of shit. Report the themes, with examples, & always report the context, especially what is being flooded out by the shit. Never let the audience lose sight of what the shit is meant to distract it from.
📌 👉 The 14th International Construction Grammar conference will be held at Princeton, June 4-7, 2026

Usage-based analyses and Empirical methods

Stay tuned for updates!

Calling all linguists, esp. corpus folks, and digital researchers, One of my students wants to research a grammatical cx on Twitter/X, but the Musk regime restricts searches. Would anyone who has Enterprise or Research access be willing to help? #linguistics #corpuslinguistics #academicbluesky
Zeteo @zeteo.com · Jul 20
“We may have to rename this show because you’re a little bit more than a far-right Republican.”

@mehdirhasan.bsky.social called out a self-proclaimed ‘fascist’ on the show ‘Surrounded’ where he debated 20 far-right Republicans.

Watch the full episode on Jubilee’s YouTube:
zeteo.com/p/is-this-th...

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When a president promotes sadism and abuse you know that the abuses will quickly get worse.
In a few short months the US has moved from kidnapping people off the streets to building concentration camps.
There will be much darker days ahead.

www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/trum...
Trump suggests teaching migrants how to run away from alligators
Donald Trump has suggested teaching migrants how to run away from alligators as he toured a new migrant detention center in Florida known as “Alligator Alcaratz”. The US president visited the facility...
www.independent.co.uk

How better to roll back the clock?

I try to avoid commenting on US politics except unless it directly affects Canada (tariffs, 51st state horseshit), but this! Jesus! If this doesn't prove unequivocally that the Trump administration hates women then I don't know what proof is. www.science.org/content/arti...
NIH guts its first and largest study centered on women
The Women’s Health Initiative has produced numerous influential findings
www.science.org

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No lawmaker in Congress should be able to own, buy, and sell individual stocks.

We need to ban congressional stock trading—and I've got a bill for that.

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A podcast episode featuring some of the Rhetoricon Team (there was supposed to be a follow up, but--thanks Doug Ford!--the funding was cut & this turned out to be the very last episode of the Games Institute Podcast 🥲). But you get Sid & Emma & my wonderful team).
open.spotify.com/episode/3Pcm...
057: Discovering Rhetorical Figures with Citizen Science with Adeshola Ogunsanya, Drake Dong, Nathan D’Silva, and Dr. Randy Harris
Games Institute Podcast · Episode
open.spotify.com

... Nathan R. Johnson, David Depew, John Angus Campbell, André Brock, Blake Scott, Judy Z. Segal, Lisa Keränen, Jeanne Fahnestock, and the late Herbert W Simons. Honourable company indeed.

Special 25th anniversary issue of POROI, reprinting a dozenish of its most influential articles. Very pleased to be between its covers with the likes of @leahcecc.bsky.social, @creekthinker.bsky.social, @rhetorologist.bsky.social, and @zoltanmajdik.bsky.social
pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/issue/...
POROI | Issue: Issue: 1(19) POROI’s First 25 Years: Mapping the Past, Charting the Future (2025)
pubs.lib.uiowa.edu

er, propaganda?
Missouri's AG Andrew Bailey is suing Starbucks, arguing that its workforce is too "female" and "non-white" and as a result Missouri consumers “pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services" because its workforce is "less qualified"

This is a brazenly racist and sexist lawsuit.

Brilliant

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Gleichschaltung is the word you're looking for, @theguardian.com

Trump is probably not capable of learning, per se, but it will be inescapable even to him that we are polite and congenial until we’re cornered. Then we’re badgers. The Mexicans are pretty tough as well. Vive le Canada! ¡Viva México! Wishing sanity and kindness returns to our US neighbours.
do you have any idea just how badly you have to fuck up to get Canada mad at you
do you have any idea just how badly you have to fuck up to get Canada mad at you

Biden's pardons attempt to inoculate people against political persecution. Trump's pardons reward people for violence, treason, and celebrating his cult of lies.

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Am always thinking of the daily stormer style guide which @ashleyfeinberg.bsky.social published, esp this section on lulz.

www.huffpost.com/entry/daily-...
With literally minutes left in his presidency, Joe Biden has granted clemency to Leonard Peltier
Joe Biden Frees Leonard Peltier
The ailing Native American rights activist has been in prison for nearly 50 years after the U.S. government lied to put him there.
www.huffpost.com

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JFC. Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg are in the front row at the #inauguration.

They are sat IN FRONT of Trump’s Cabinet.

The era of oligarchy.

(📸: Julia Demaree Nikhinson, AFP)

Hard not to love this takedown. Extra props for mentioning Canada’s biggest embarrassment, Jordan what’s his name. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers | Rebecca Shaw
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s desperation to be cool as they suck up to Donald Trump is so cringe it makes my skin crawl
www.theguardian.com