Ethan Gotlieb Wilcox
@wegotlieb.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Computational Linguistics @ Georgetown; formerly postdoc @ ETH Zurich; PhD @ Harvard Linguistics, affiliated with MIT Brain & Cog Sci. Language, Computers, Cognition.
Reposted by Ethan Gotlieb Wilcox
New work to appear @ TACL!
Language models (LMs) are remarkably good at generating novel well-formed sentences, leading to claims that they have mastered grammar.
Yet they often assign higher probability to ungrammatical strings than to grammatical strings.
How can both things be true? 🧵👇
Language models (LMs) are remarkably good at generating novel well-formed sentences, leading to claims that they have mastered grammar.
Yet they often assign higher probability to ungrammatical strings than to grammatical strings.
How can both things be true? 🧵👇
November 10, 2025 at 10:11 PM
New work to appear @ TACL!
Language models (LMs) are remarkably good at generating novel well-formed sentences, leading to claims that they have mastered grammar.
Yet they often assign higher probability to ungrammatical strings than to grammatical strings.
How can both things be true? 🧵👇
Language models (LMs) are remarkably good at generating novel well-formed sentences, leading to claims that they have mastered grammar.
Yet they often assign higher probability to ungrammatical strings than to grammatical strings.
How can both things be true? 🧵👇
I will be recruiting PhD students via Georgetown Linguistics this application cycle! Come join us in the PICoL (pronounced “pickle”) lab. We focus on psycholinguistics and cognitive modeling using LLMs. See the linked flyer for more details: bit.ly/3L3vcyA
October 21, 2025 at 9:52 PM
I will be recruiting PhD students via Georgetown Linguistics this application cycle! Come join us in the PICoL (pronounced “pickle”) lab. We focus on psycholinguistics and cognitive modeling using LLMs. See the linked flyer for more details: bit.ly/3L3vcyA
🌟🌟This paper will appear at ACL 2025 (@aclmeeting.bsky.social)! New updated version is on arXiv: arxiv.org/pdf/2505.07659 🌟🌟
June 3, 2025 at 1:45 PM
🌟🌟This paper will appear at ACL 2025 (@aclmeeting.bsky.social)! New updated version is on arXiv: arxiv.org/pdf/2505.07659 🌟🌟
Reposted by Ethan Gotlieb Wilcox
A key hypothesis in the history of linguistics is that different constructions share underlying structure. We take advantage of recent advances in mechanistic interpretability to test this hypothesis in Language Models.
New work with @kmahowald.bsky.social and @cgpotts.bsky.social!
🧵👇!
New work with @kmahowald.bsky.social and @cgpotts.bsky.social!
🧵👇!
May 27, 2025 at 2:33 PM
A key hypothesis in the history of linguistics is that different constructions share underlying structure. We take advantage of recent advances in mechanistic interpretability to test this hypothesis in Language Models.
New work with @kmahowald.bsky.social and @cgpotts.bsky.social!
🧵👇!
New work with @kmahowald.bsky.social and @cgpotts.bsky.social!
🧵👇!
⭐🗣️New preprint out: 🗣️⭐ “Using Information Theory to Characterize Prosodic Typology: The Case of Tone, Pitch-Accent and Stress-Accent” with @cuiding.bsky.social , Giovanni Acampa, @tpimentel.bsky.social , @alexwarstadt.bsky.social ,Tamar Regev: arxiv.org/abs/2505.07659
Using Information Theory to Characterize Prosodic Typology: The Case of Tone, Pitch-Accent and Stress-Accent
This paper argues that the relationship between lexical identity and prosody -- one well-studied parameter of linguistic variation -- can be characterized using information theory. We predict that lan...
arxiv.org
May 13, 2025 at 1:21 PM
⭐🗣️New preprint out: 🗣️⭐ “Using Information Theory to Characterize Prosodic Typology: The Case of Tone, Pitch-Accent and Stress-Accent” with @cuiding.bsky.social , Giovanni Acampa, @tpimentel.bsky.social , @alexwarstadt.bsky.social ,Tamar Regev: arxiv.org/abs/2505.07659
📣Paper Update 📣It’s bigger! It’s better! Even if the language models aren’t. 🤖New version of “Bigger is not always Better: The importance of human-scale language modeling for psycholinguistics” osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
May 12, 2025 at 3:48 PM
📣Paper Update 📣It’s bigger! It’s better! Even if the language models aren’t. 🤖New version of “Bigger is not always Better: The importance of human-scale language modeling for psycholinguistics” osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Ethan Gotlieb Wilcox
Excited to share our preprint "Using MoTR to probe agreement errors in Russian"! w/ Metehan Oğuz, @wegotlieb.bsky.social, Zuzanna Fuchs Link: osf.io/preprints/ps...
1- We provide moderate evidence that processing of agreement errors is modulated by agreement type (internal vs external agr.)
1- We provide moderate evidence that processing of agreement errors is modulated by agreement type (internal vs external agr.)
OSF
osf.io
March 7, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Excited to share our preprint "Using MoTR to probe agreement errors in Russian"! w/ Metehan Oğuz, @wegotlieb.bsky.social, Zuzanna Fuchs Link: osf.io/preprints/ps...
1- We provide moderate evidence that processing of agreement errors is modulated by agreement type (internal vs external agr.)
1- We provide moderate evidence that processing of agreement errors is modulated by agreement type (internal vs external agr.)
Reposted by Ethan Gotlieb Wilcox
Me and @wegotlieb.bsky.social were recently invited to write a wide-ranging reflection on the current state of linguistic theory and methodology.
A draft is up here. For anyone interested in thinking big about linguistics, we'd be happy to hear your thoughts!
arxiv.org/abs/2502.18313
#linguistics
A draft is up here. For anyone interested in thinking big about linguistics, we'd be happy to hear your thoughts!
arxiv.org/abs/2502.18313
#linguistics
Looking forward: Linguistic theory and methods
This chapter examines current developments in linguistic theory and methods, focusing on the increasing integration of computational, cognitive, and evolutionary perspectives. We highlight four major ...
arxiv.org
February 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Me and @wegotlieb.bsky.social were recently invited to write a wide-ranging reflection on the current state of linguistic theory and methodology.
A draft is up here. For anyone interested in thinking big about linguistics, we'd be happy to hear your thoughts!
arxiv.org/abs/2502.18313
#linguistics
A draft is up here. For anyone interested in thinking big about linguistics, we'd be happy to hear your thoughts!
arxiv.org/abs/2502.18313
#linguistics
📣 New Paper ⚖️🧑⚖️🏛️ Large Language Models for Legal Interpretation? Don't Take Their Word for It 👩⚖️🏛️⚖️ with @bwal.bsky.social , @complingy.bsky.social Amir Zeldes, and @kevintobia.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Large Language Models for Legal Interpretation? Don't Take Their Word for It
<p><span>Recent breakthroughs in statistical language modeling have impacted countless domains, including the law. Chatbot applications such as ChatGPT, Claude,
papers.ssrn.com
February 19, 2025 at 2:25 PM
📣 New Paper ⚖️🧑⚖️🏛️ Large Language Models for Legal Interpretation? Don't Take Their Word for It 👩⚖️🏛️⚖️ with @bwal.bsky.social , @complingy.bsky.social Amir Zeldes, and @kevintobia.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....