Simon Kirby

@simonkirby.bsky.social

1.6K followers 480 following 130 posts

Prof Language Evolution FBA FRSE MAE. Head of Dept, Linguistics & English Language, Uni Edinburgh. With my students & collaborators I do science & art. he/him. simonkirby.net

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Economics 28%

Psychology 18%

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Simon Kirby @simonkirby.bsky.social · Feb 7

A thread explaining our new discovery about humpback whale song published today in Science... We found key statistical properties that characterise all human languages in another species for the first time. We have more in common with whales than we previously thought! doi.org/10.1126/scie...

A picture of a humpback whale just below the sea surface taken by Marc Quintin

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Aislinn Keogh @mandolinguist.bsky.social · 20h

⚠️ New paper! Why do words sound so similar? In an agent-based model + communication game, we show that production/comprehension pressures trade off to shape lexicon structure.

In @cognitionjournal.bsky.social w/ @simonkirby.bsky.social & Jenny Culbertson.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The lexicon adapts to competing communicative pressures: Explaining patterns of word similarity

Cross-linguistically, lexicons tend to be more phonetically clustered than required by the phonotactics of the language; that is, words within a langu…

www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Maisy Hallam @maisyhallam.bsky.social · Oct 1

New paper in @openmindjournal.bsky.social with @simonkirby.bsky.social, @kennysmithed.bsky.social and Fiona Jordan! Kinship terms overwhelmingly exhibit predictive structure - terms in one part of the system help us predict other terms - a pattern which emerges because it helps us generalise better.

Predictive Structure Emerges During the Generalisation of Kin Terms to New Referents

Abstract. Despite cross-linguistic diversity in how kin relations map to terminology, there are constraints on which kin may be categorised together. But what are the constraints on kin term variation...

direct.mit.edu

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Stan Carey @stancarey.bsky.social · Mar 10

Watched "No Other Land" at the weekend, thanks to @channel4.bsky.social. It's a brilliant, wrenching documentary

I'm still amazed it won the Oscar without even a distributor in the US, and with political sentiment the way it is there www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N3C... 📽

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · Mar 21

Hi there. Universities make a loss on teaching home undergraduates, doing state-backed and charity-funded research, and also on PhD students. So that's it really, game over. What else are we supposed to do?
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/phd-fee...

PhD fees only cover 20 per cent of costs at some UK universities

Average losses on doctoral training of over 50 per cent seen as ‘underestimate’, with gaps plugged by overseas student fees and quality-related funding

www.timeshighereducation.com

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Jamie Smart @jamiesmart.bsky.social · Mar 18

There’s a great interview with Nick Park about Wallace And Gromit in last month’s Empire, and this bit in particular stood out. It sums up what artists have been trying to say about AI. The mistakes and the learning aren’t things to be bypassed, but a vital part of the process 🤟

Reposted by Simon Kirby, Jane Callaghan

Scottish Trans @scottishtrans.bsky.social · Apr 16

We'd urge people not to panic - there will be lots of commentary coming out quickly that is likely to deliberately overstate the impact that this decision is going to have on all trans people's lives. We'll say more as soon as we're able to. Please look out for yourselves and each other today 💗🏳️‍⚧️

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Christian Ilbury @christianilbury.bsky.social · Apr 24

The proudest moment of my academic career to date. I was honoured to receive this Teaching award last night for my course, Sociolinguistics.

@schoolofppls.bsky.social

Simon Kirby @simonkirby.bsky.social · Jul 8

My first ever book cover! Made with maths, pencil, drawing robot, and photographic negative. Thank you @limorraviv.bsky.social and @cedricboeckx.bsky.social for asking me to do it, and for the lovely handwritten dedication inside 😊

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Aislinn Keogh @mandolinguist.bsky.social · Jul 7

Introducing Dr Keogh! 🎓 Very emotional to have finally closed the chapter on my time at the @uoe-cle.bsky.social 😭 but glad to have passed this milestone in the company of my wonderful supervisors @simonkirby.bsky.social and Jenny Culbertson, and my PhD twin Elizabeth Pankratz. We made it!

#PhDone

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Centre for Language Evolution @uoe-cle.bsky.social · Jul 7

Language and Communication is on the GESDA science breakthrough radar for the first time! Language evolution, AI, empirical method and multilingualism are the four core topics. Make your views known on how likely breakthroughs are in these areas, and how soon they might happen: tinyurl.com/2r29yep6

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Centre for Language Evolution @uoe-cle.bsky.social · Jun 30

Join us at the National Museum of Scotland July 19th to learn about animal communication and what makes human communication different from the rest of our primate family! 🐵 www.nms.ac.uk/events/monke...

A blonde woman in a grey t-shirt and a brunette woman in a red vest sit at a table. Both are smiling. On the table there is a plush monkey toy, a blue tray, and a green vine.

Reposted by Simon Kirby, Seán G. Roberts

Cedric Boeckx @cedricboeckx.bsky.social · May 27

Delighted to announce the publication of a collaborative effort, co-led by @limorraviv.bsky.social @mpi-nl.bsky.social, showcasing the ways in which researchers have made language evolution an empirical issue: A handbook of experimental approaches to the fascinating problem of language evolution 🧪

Simon Kirby @simonkirby.bsky.social · Apr 25

So lucky and proud to have someone as dedicated to his students as Christian as a colleague.

Christian Ilbury @christianilbury.bsky.social · Apr 24

The proudest moment of my academic career to date. I was honoured to receive this Teaching award last night for my course, Sociolinguistics.

@schoolofppls.bsky.social

Reposted by Simon Kirby, Jonas Trepel

Nature @nature.com · Apr 24

Scientists must push back against the threat of rising white nationalism and the dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics

https://go.nature.com/4jGqiUc

Eugenics is on the rise again: human geneticists must take a stand

Scientists must push back against the threat of rising white nationalism and the dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics.

go.nature.com

Simon Kirby @simonkirby.bsky.social · Apr 24

Earlier this month, @nerdpro.bsky.social and I collaborated on an Atmosphere screening of my favourite film, Arrival. It was a lot of fun projecting animated Heptapod writing and quotations from Chiang’s original. We also wrote an essay you might like: www.mediascot.org/atmosphere/a...

Atmosphere | The Circle of Language and Cognition | New Media Scotland

Human What the alien language from Arrival reveals about being human What is the connection between human language and how the human mind works? Understanding the precise relationship between language...

www.mediascot.org

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Margaret Mitchell @mmitchell.bsky.social · Apr 23

Many thanks to @wired.com & @thiccreese.bsky.social for covering our work on stereotype bias!!
The new dataset is SHADES, now available here: huggingface.co/datasets/LanguageShades/BiasShades
The first of its kind for analyzing GenAI stereotyping across many languages+cultures.
Published at NAACL.🤗

Reposted by James Q. Wilson, Simon Kirby

Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · Apr 23

In what proportions is our new NIH Director a flaming ignoramus vs. a brazen liar?

Jonny Paradise 🌱
@plantparadise7
·
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya on mRNA tech:

"The next step is [to halt] the mRNA platform itself... the manufacturer has no idea what dose they're giving, no idea where it goes in the body, and whether they are producing off-target antigens"

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Peter Kirn @pkirn.bsky.social · Apr 23

"Funk was a genre of sonic color, a genre that crossed oceans, a genre rooted in radical joy and inclusivity. We Want The Funk! makes clear that Black art is not just expression — it’s liberation." -Black Enterprise review. The full documentary is online:

Funk music history and Black liberation in a full-length documentary, online - CDM Create Digital Music

Hip hop, new wave, techno, and house are inseparable from funk history - and any discussion of funk in the 1970s demands a conversation about Black liberation. Emmy winner and MacArthur Fellow Stanley...

cdm.link

Reposted by Simon Kirby, Masatoshi Katabuchi

Nature @nature.com · Apr 22

All new research grants have been frozen at the US National Science Foundation — an action apparently ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency

https://go.nature.com/42pvdDe

Exclusive: Trump team freezes new NSF awards — and could soon axe hundreds of grants

The National Science Foundation is the latest US agency to be disrupted by Elon Musk’s DOGE.

go.nature.com

Reposted by Simon Kirby, David W. Lawson

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · Apr 21

NIH moving to ban all future grants to universities with DEI programs or Israel boycotts, document suggests. Story by @aniloza.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/04/21/t...

NIH moving to ban all future grants to universities with DEI programs or Israel boycotts, document suggests

NIH appears to be preparing to prohibit the awarding of new grants to institutions that have DEI programs or boycott Israeli companies

www.statnews.com

Reposted by Simon Kirby, Jaap H. Abbring

Matt Steinglass @mattsteinglass.bsky.social · Apr 21

IPSOS finds collapse in European pro-US sentiment in last 6 months. In October 2024 50% of Dutch thought the US would have a positive influence on the world; in April 2024 that has plummeted to 20%. Similar drops in France, Italy, Germany et al. www.ipsos.com/en/americas-...

Reposted by Simon Kirby

wehhhhhhhh @mirative.moe · Apr 20

These are now woke DEI books

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Lameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · Apr 20

Didn't take too long, apparently:

forward.com/fast-forward...

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · Apr 19

This is simply extraordinary. The Trump administration's argument is, essentially: if you receive some massively aggressive legal missive from the White House, don't respond in a timely way. Instead, chill out for a bit, in case we take it all back.

Joseph Allen
@j_g_allen
--> WH sends Harvard letter making outrageous (and illegal) demands

--> WH now says it was sent by accident (oops!)

--> WH blames Harvard (?) for reacting to the letter they sent

--> Harvard: The letter “was signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the email inbox of a senior federal official and was sent on April 11 as promised,” Harvard said in a statement on Friday. “Recipients of such correspondence from the U.S. government — even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach — do not question its authenticity or seriousness.”

Harvard's statement continued:
2:52 AM · Apr 19, 2025
·
547.7K
Views

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Linguischick @cocchino.bsky.social · Apr 19

New NSF "Broad Impact" guidelines, "Research projects with more narrow impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF priorities"
#Linguistics #DeafCommunities #IndigenousCommunities
#RacializedCommunities
#MinoritizedCommunities

a bald man with a shaved head is wearing a gray suit

Alt: Dr. EVIL (a bald man with a shaved head, wearing a gray suit) says "right"

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Simon Kirby

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · Apr 17

Sooner or later, one of three things is going to happen. Universities can find money at home, or they can find it abroad. But if they don’t find it, some are going under.

In defence of international students.

International students can save Britain’s broke universities

They can find money at home, or they can find it abroad. But if they don’t find it, some are going under.

www.newstatesman.com

Simon Kirby @simonkirby.bsky.social · Apr 17

I am genuinely baffled by mainstream political antipathy towards international students (which is not shared by the voting public, who are presumably delighted that they subsidise their kids’ education). The only “problem” solved by dissuading them from coming is the existence of universities at all

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · Apr 17

International students can save Britain’s broke universities

They can find money at home, or they can find it abroad. But if they don’t find it, some are going under.

www.newstatesman.com

Simon Kirby @simonkirby.bsky.social · Apr 17

The court *explicitly* does not attempt to define “woman”. No matter the harms this judgment will cause an endlessly beleaguered & oppressed minority (whilst doing nothing about the real source of gender-based violence), we should not allow lazy headline writers to claim it means more that it does.

Clipping from the Guardian article by Sam Fowles pointing out that the Supreme Court judgment explicitly states that their role is not to define the meaning of the word “woman”.

Reposted by Simon Kirby, David Merrett

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · Apr 17

An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪

Promising hints of life found on distant planet K2-18b

Scientists find new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.

www.bbc.co.uk

Simon Kirby @simonkirby.bsky.social · Apr 16

Solidarity with my trans friends & colleagues on a difficult day for them. Depressing to hear that (once again) trans voices seem to have been left out of evidence gathering by the court. Let’s not allow this ruling to be overzealously interpreted by those trying to erase trans voices even further.

Scottish Trans @scottishtrans.bsky.social · Apr 16

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