Ryan Walter Smith
@ryanwaltersmith.bsky.social
Assistant professor of Linguistics at Rutgers University. Semantics (states and changes of state, abstract nouns, memory, plurals) and Iranian languages. Animal lover, classical guitarist, plant mom, Bollywood fan, Balkans stan.
Reposted by Ryan Walter Smith
Just gonna say this again for games sphere cus we get the same question:
Networking doesn't mean schmoozing up to famous people, it means making friends with your peers. Then in 10 years, 20, one of you might be famous? And sure you're still helping each other cus well yeah friends.
Make. Friends.
Networking doesn't mean schmoozing up to famous people, it means making friends with your peers. Then in 10 years, 20, one of you might be famous? And sure you're still helping each other cus well yeah friends.
Make. Friends.
Talking to one of these types at a con who asked how I 'got in' with so many 'famous writers' who I'd been talking to and I said "we made friends before anyone knew who we were decades ago by striking up interesting conversations and enjoying each other's company" and he kept re-asking the question.
They have come to the convention hoping to "break in" and then find themselves -- shocker! -- a "nobody in the book world." Yeah no shit! We all are! I have gently told guys like this a million times that it takes most of us *years* of hard work but they do not believe that could be true for them. +
December 27, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Just gonna say this again for games sphere cus we get the same question:
Networking doesn't mean schmoozing up to famous people, it means making friends with your peers. Then in 10 years, 20, one of you might be famous? And sure you're still helping each other cus well yeah friends.
Make. Friends.
Networking doesn't mean schmoozing up to famous people, it means making friends with your peers. Then in 10 years, 20, one of you might be famous? And sure you're still helping each other cus well yeah friends.
Make. Friends.
Reposted by Ryan Walter Smith
They should do MyChart Wrapped
December 3, 2025 at 10:13 PM
They should do MyChart Wrapped
Reposted by Ryan Walter Smith
normal person: i just want a place to hang out with my friends
tech weirdo: and shitheads
np: no just my friends
tw: but what about hearing alternative views on race and gender?
np: we just want to hang out and goof around
tw: so where do the shitheads fit in then
np: no shitheads
tw: not following
tech weirdo: and shitheads
np: no just my friends
tw: but what about hearing alternative views on race and gender?
np: we just want to hang out and goof around
tw: so where do the shitheads fit in then
np: no shitheads
tw: not following
October 6, 2025 at 12:02 PM
normal person: i just want a place to hang out with my friends
tech weirdo: and shitheads
np: no just my friends
tw: but what about hearing alternative views on race and gender?
np: we just want to hang out and goof around
tw: so where do the shitheads fit in then
np: no shitheads
tw: not following
tech weirdo: and shitheads
np: no just my friends
tw: but what about hearing alternative views on race and gender?
np: we just want to hang out and goof around
tw: so where do the shitheads fit in then
np: no shitheads
tw: not following
Reposted by Ryan Walter Smith
Interested in Balkan languages? The definitive reference work has arrived – on 1000 pages, in open access. www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...
June 30, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Interested in Balkan languages? The definitive reference work has arrived – on 1000 pages, in open access. www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...
Reposted by Ryan Walter Smith
You have more in common with the average Iranian citizen than you do with the people that run this country
June 22, 2025 at 3:03 AM
You have more in common with the average Iranian citizen than you do with the people that run this country
Reposted by Ryan Walter Smith
Sanskrit speakers were calling their leaders “the goat”, it appears.
June 11, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Sanskrit speakers were calling their leaders “the goat”, it appears.
Our paper, From state to change of state by type-shift, has officially been published open access at Natural Language Semantics! Take a look!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
From state to change of state by type-shift - Natural Language Semantics
This paper proposes a type-shifting analysis of state/change-of-state lability (Koontz-Garboden et al. in Verbhood and state/change of state lability across languages, Ms., 2023): in languages with no...
link.springer.com
May 28, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Our paper, From state to change of state by type-shift, has officially been published open access at Natural Language Semantics! Take a look!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Ryan Walter Smith
Kit Fine is the Steve Reich of analytic philosophy (no, I will not be elaborating)
April 18, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Kit Fine is the Steve Reich of analytic philosophy (no, I will not be elaborating)
Big news! I am very excited to announce that I will be starting as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Rutgers University this fall! I'm beyond thrilled to be joining such a fantastic department and very much looking forward to everything to come.
April 17, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Big news! I am very excited to announce that I will be starting as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Rutgers University this fall! I'm beyond thrilled to be joining such a fantastic department and very much looking forward to everything to come.
Happy to share my collaborative work with Vera Hohaus, "Scope, monotonicity and maximal informativity cannot be underestimated! A compositional analysis of an apparent linguistic illusion," which has just been published in the Proceedings of SALT34!
journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/...
journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/...
Scope, monotonicity and maximal informativity cannot be underestimated! A compositional analysis of an apparent linguistic illusion
| Semantics and Linguistic Theory
journals.linguisticsociety.org
February 27, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Happy to share my collaborative work with Vera Hohaus, "Scope, monotonicity and maximal informativity cannot be underestimated! A compositional analysis of an apparent linguistic illusion," which has just been published in the Proceedings of SALT34!
journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/...
journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/...
Happy to announce that my paper with Jens Hopperdietzel and Andrew Koontz-Garboden on a type-shifting approach to state/change-of-state lability has been accepted–pending minor revisions–at Natural Language Semantics! Happy this will be out soon!
February 16, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Happy to announce that my paper with Jens Hopperdietzel and Andrew Koontz-Garboden on a type-shifting approach to state/change-of-state lability has been accepted–pending minor revisions–at Natural Language Semantics! Happy this will be out soon!
Reposted by Ryan Walter Smith
Anyways I had a genuine scientific need to find/recall/google dad jokes in Spanish so please disfrutádlos
February 8, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Anyways I had a genuine scientific need to find/recall/google dad jokes in Spanish so please disfrutádlos
Happy to announce I'll be presenting a talk at NACIL4 in Toronto, as well as a poster at WCCFL43 in Seattle! The NACIL talk is about the form and semantics of memory reports in Persian and Sorani Kurdish, and the WCCFL poster is about an understudied use of re- in English. Fun!
February 8, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Happy to announce I'll be presenting a talk at NACIL4 in Toronto, as well as a poster at WCCFL43 in Seattle! The NACIL talk is about the form and semantics of memory reports in Persian and Sorani Kurdish, and the WCCFL poster is about an understudied use of re- in English. Fun!
Happy to report I'll be giving a talk and a poster presentation at this year's Sinn und Bedeutung! Looking forward to Sicily in September!
June 20, 2024 at 7:24 PM
Happy to report I'll be giving a talk and a poster presentation at this year's Sinn und Bedeutung! Looking forward to Sicily in September!
Off to Nantes for TripleA 11! Very much looking forward to the conference, which was my favorite last year, as well as checking out a city in France other than Paris!
June 9, 2024 at 6:43 AM
Off to Nantes for TripleA 11! Very much looking forward to the conference, which was my favorite last year, as well as checking out a city in France other than Paris!
Heading out for SALT34 tomorrow, where I'll be presenting joint work with Vera Hohaus on "Scope, monotonicity and maximal informativity cannot be underestimated! A compositional analysis of an apparent linguistic illusion." Looking forward to it!
May 25, 2024 at 3:33 PM
Heading out for SALT34 tomorrow, where I'll be presenting joint work with Vera Hohaus on "Scope, monotonicity and maximal informativity cannot be underestimated! A compositional analysis of an apparent linguistic illusion." Looking forward to it!
Very happy to share that my paper "Mental states via possessive predication: the grammar of possessive experiencer complex predicates in Persian" has been published open access in Natural Language Semantics! You can check it out via the link below!
doi.org/10.1007/s11050-024-09221-8
doi.org/10.1007/s11050-024-09221-8
April 5, 2024 at 1:45 PM
Very happy to share that my paper "Mental states via possessive predication: the grammar of possessive experiencer complex predicates in Persian" has been published open access in Natural Language Semantics! You can check it out via the link below!
doi.org/10.1007/s11050-024-09221-8
doi.org/10.1007/s11050-024-09221-8
Happy to announce I'll be giving a talk at CLS60 this year on my most recent work: "Growth and improvement: a quality semantics for result state nominals." Very excited to present on this!
March 14, 2024 at 8:25 PM
Happy to announce I'll be giving a talk at CLS60 this year on my most recent work: "Growth and improvement: a quality semantics for result state nominals." Very excited to present on this!
Recently realized I wrote in a job application that I was writing to apply to the department's "tenure-track Visiting Assistant Professor position." 🤦♂️
March 8, 2024 at 10:47 AM
Recently realized I wrote in a job application that I was writing to apply to the department's "tenure-track Visiting Assistant Professor position." 🤦♂️
Very, very pleased to announce that Vera Hohaus and I have a poster at SALT this year! At least one of us will be there to present "Scope, monotonicity and maximal informativity cannot be underestimated ! A compositional analysis of an apparent linguistic illusion." Very much looking forward to it!
March 4, 2024 at 9:04 PM
Very, very pleased to announce that Vera Hohaus and I have a poster at SALT this year! At least one of us will be there to present "Scope, monotonicity and maximal informativity cannot be underestimated ! A compositional analysis of an apparent linguistic illusion." Very much looking forward to it!
Pleased to announce that my paper "Mental states via possessive predication: the grammar of possessive experiencer complex predicates in Persian," has been accepted for publication in Natural Language Semantics! Many thanks to everyone who played a role in the development of this paper!
February 2, 2024 at 5:22 PM
Pleased to announce that my paper "Mental states via possessive predication: the grammar of possessive experiencer complex predicates in Persian," has been accepted for publication in Natural Language Semantics! Many thanks to everyone who played a role in the development of this paper!
Reposted by Ryan Walter Smith
Semantics teachers! The Spring 2024 edition of “Invitation to Formal Semantics” is now up at: eecoppock.info/semantics-bo...
This release includes important fixes in Chapters 6, 12, and 13. Feedback remains very much appreciated as always!
This release includes important fixes in Chapters 6, 12, and 13. Feedback remains very much appreciated as always!
eecoppock.info
January 18, 2024 at 10:22 PM
Semantics teachers! The Spring 2024 edition of “Invitation to Formal Semantics” is now up at: eecoppock.info/semantics-bo...
This release includes important fixes in Chapters 6, 12, and 13. Feedback remains very much appreciated as always!
This release includes important fixes in Chapters 6, 12, and 13. Feedback remains very much appreciated as always!
Made it to the Sheraton in NYC! Ready to party (read: do linguistics lol)!
January 2, 2024 at 11:57 PM
Made it to the Sheraton in NYC! Ready to party (read: do linguistics lol)!
Getting ready to fly to NYC for the LSA tomorrow! Excited to see some cool linguistics and catch up with some friends. If you'll happen to be there and want to say hi, don't be a stranger!
January 1, 2024 at 2:02 PM
Getting ready to fly to NYC for the LSA tomorrow! Excited to see some cool linguistics and catch up with some friends. If you'll happen to be there and want to say hi, don't be a stranger!