John Mansfield
@johnbasil.bsky.social
my job is just LANGUAGING
Pinned
John Mansfield
@johnbasil.bsky.social
· Sep 29
Linguistic Diversification and Rates of Change: Insights From a Diverse Sample of Sociolinguistic Studies
Language diversification and change can be studied using phylogenetic modelling of families over thousands of years, or by close observation of changes unfolding over a few decades at the community l....
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Social functions of language may drive faster change and faster diversification in some features.
Thanks to growing diversity in variationst sociolinguistics, I gathered studies of 63 languages from 28 families. Here I sketch some potential patterns
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Thanks to growing diversity in variationst sociolinguistics, I gathered studies of 63 languages from 28 families. Here I sketch some potential patterns
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by John Mansfield
#Vacancies: we are looking for not just one but three #postdoctoral researchers interested in bridging #genetics, #archaeology and #linguistics in exploring the #humanpast. shorturl.at/B3Qdd @haam-community.bsky.social @cschlebu.bsky.social
Postdoctoral position in Palaeo-population genomics at the Center for the Human Past - Uppsala University
Postdoctoral position in Palaeo-population genomics at the Center for the Human Past, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University
shorturl.at
November 10, 2025 at 7:49 AM
#Vacancies: we are looking for not just one but three #postdoctoral researchers interested in bridging #genetics, #archaeology and #linguistics in exploring the #humanpast. shorturl.at/B3Qdd @haam-community.bsky.social @cschlebu.bsky.social
„Find a political home, be it a nonprofit, mutual aid group, or a community garden, so you have a network of people you want to be with as things get harder.”
This is a great piece from @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social, who was out all day in NYC reporting. It's about Mamdani but from the perspective of the organizers and volunteers who helped him to victory, and who won't stop organizing to help him carry out his agenda.
prospect.org/2025/11/05/n...
prospect.org/2025/11/05/n...
New Yorkers Say Yes to Mamdani, That’s Spelled M A M D A N I - The American Prospect
By 3 p.m. Tuesday, New York voters had already surpassed the turnout of any mayoral election since 2001, casting 1.4 million votes. Volunteers and advocates say the best thing to do today is celebrate...
prospect.org
November 5, 2025 at 5:53 AM
„Find a political home, be it a nonprofit, mutual aid group, or a community garden, so you have a network of people you want to be with as things get harder.”
PhD on *interactional and neural processes in conversation*, to work with the delightful Prof Adrian Bangerter in the charming Swiss city of Neuchatel...
www.unine.ch/ipto/emploi/
www.unine.ch/ipto/emploi/
Emploi - Institut de psychologie du travail et des organisations
www.unine.ch
October 30, 2025 at 1:45 PM
PhD on *interactional and neural processes in conversation*, to work with the delightful Prof Adrian Bangerter in the charming Swiss city of Neuchatel...
www.unine.ch/ipto/emploi/
www.unine.ch/ipto/emploi/
the dysfunctional search function in Microsoft Outlook is an international scandal
October 29, 2025 at 12:40 PM
the dysfunctional search function in Microsoft Outlook is an international scandal
Last night I dreamt that our students started forming these radical political groups called „Noun Phrases“ and the uni management was really angry
October 7, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Last night I dreamt that our students started forming these radical political groups called „Noun Phrases“ and the uni management was really angry
Reposted by John Mansfield
Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.
2 million rally in Italy for Gaza as general strike halts key services
Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.
bit.ly
October 4, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.
Social functions of language may drive faster change and faster diversification in some features.
Thanks to growing diversity in variationst sociolinguistics, I gathered studies of 63 languages from 28 families. Here I sketch some potential patterns
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Thanks to growing diversity in variationst sociolinguistics, I gathered studies of 63 languages from 28 families. Here I sketch some potential patterns
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Linguistic Diversification and Rates of Change: Insights From a Diverse Sample of Sociolinguistic Studies
Language diversification and change can be studied using phylogenetic modelling of families over thousands of years, or by close observation of changes unfolding over a few decades at the community l....
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 29, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Social functions of language may drive faster change and faster diversification in some features.
Thanks to growing diversity in variationst sociolinguistics, I gathered studies of 63 languages from 28 families. Here I sketch some potential patterns
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Thanks to growing diversity in variationst sociolinguistics, I gathered studies of 63 languages from 28 families. Here I sketch some potential patterns
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
ok I got curious and tried vibe coding for processing some cross-linguistic data... hilariously bad 😭 ... maybe a special case because I was dealing with GRAMMATICAL GENDER (AI was triggered), but it sure did produce some garbage
September 4, 2025 at 7:50 AM
ok I got curious and tried vibe coding for processing some cross-linguistic data... hilariously bad 😭 ... maybe a special case because I was dealing with GRAMMATICAL GENDER (AI was triggered), but it sure did produce some garbage
Reposted by John Mansfield
Interested in doing a PhD with me and lacns.github.io? Or with any of the incredible fellows in the IMPRS School of Cognition www.maxplanckschools.org/cognition-en - apply before Dec 1st at cognition.maxplanckschools.org/en/application
Language and Computation in Neural Systems
We are an international group of scientists consisting of linguists, cognitive scientists, cognitive neuroscientists, computational neuroscientists, computational modellers, computational scientists, ...
lacns.github.io
September 3, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Interested in doing a PhD with me and lacns.github.io? Or with any of the incredible fellows in the IMPRS School of Cognition www.maxplanckschools.org/cognition-en - apply before Dec 1st at cognition.maxplanckschools.org/en/application
Reposted by John Mansfield
Congratulations to Alexandra Bosshard for winning the #SLE2025 award for best presentation by a post-doctoral researcher with her excellent talk on processing perspectives in animal compositionality!
August 29, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Congratulations to Alexandra Bosshard for winning the #SLE2025 award for best presentation by a post-doctoral researcher with her excellent talk on processing perspectives in animal compositionality!
Reposted by John Mansfield
Punctuated equilibrium, a concept introduced by paleontologists in 1972, reimagines evolution’s tempo as a stochastic burst rather than a steady beat. A new model finds support for their theory in both molecular and fossil data. @jakebuehler.bsky.social reports www.quantamagazine.org/the-sudden-s...
August 28, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Punctuated equilibrium, a concept introduced by paleontologists in 1972, reimagines evolution’s tempo as a stochastic burst rather than a steady beat. A new model finds support for their theory in both molecular and fossil data. @jakebuehler.bsky.social reports www.quantamagazine.org/the-sudden-s...
Reposted by John Mansfield
The Guardian just revealed Israel’s own military data: 83% of those killed in Gaza are civilians. That’s not war, that’s genocide.
August 21, 2025 at 3:26 PM
The Guardian just revealed Israel’s own military data: 83% of those killed in Gaza are civilians. That’s not war, that’s genocide.
"Evolutionary dynamics of language: Insights from a diverse sample of sociolinguistic studies" forthcoming article comparing findings from phylogenetic and sociolinguistic studies
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
Evolutionary dynamics of language: Insights from a diverse sample of sociolinguistic studies - lingbuzz/008948
The evolutionary dynamics of language can be studied using phylogenetic modelling of changes over thousands of years, or by close observation of changes unfolding over a few decades at the community l...
ling.auf.net
August 21, 2025 at 2:35 PM
"Evolutionary dynamics of language: Insights from a diverse sample of sociolinguistic studies" forthcoming article comparing findings from phylogenetic and sociolinguistic studies
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
I'm gonna start using the word "hereby" more often
seems powerful
seems powerful
August 21, 2025 at 11:19 AM
I'm gonna start using the word "hereby" more often
seems powerful
seems powerful
Reposted by John Mansfield
So happy that this paper lead by Joseph Mine is finally out! Was cool to be part of this project on the social learning of multi-modal communication in chimpanzees, which is slightly outside of my usual scope (and it’s my first co-authored paper too, yay!) :) journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Chimpanzee mothers, but not fathers, influence offspring vocal–visual communicative behavior
The influence of social versus genetic factors on communication in non-human hominids is not well understood. This study shows that, in line with their central caretaking role, chimpanzees exhibit pre...
journals.plos.org
August 5, 2025 at 6:55 PM
So happy that this paper lead by Joseph Mine is finally out! Was cool to be part of this project on the social learning of multi-modal communication in chimpanzees, which is slightly outside of my usual scope (and it’s my first co-authored paper too, yay!) :) journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by John Mansfield
The Israeli army just murdered Anas Al-Sharif a Palestinian journalist who covered Israel’s war crimes in hopes of one day ending the killings. His last post was from about a half hour ago reporting on the intensified bombings in Gaza City.
August 10, 2025 at 9:07 PM
The Israeli army just murdered Anas Al-Sharif a Palestinian journalist who covered Israel’s war crimes in hopes of one day ending the killings. His last post was from about a half hour ago reporting on the intensified bombings in Gaza City.
Reposted by John Mansfield
Can’t say why exactly, but the phrase “once again refused a pierogi” made me laugh out loud.
August 9, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Can’t say why exactly, but the phrase “once again refused a pierogi” made me laugh out loud.
Reposted by John Mansfield
Postdoc (80%) in the Cognition Lab at University of Zurich, Switzerland
We are looking for a postdoc to work with us on the capacity limits of cognition (working memory, attention, long-term memory, ...).
Application deadline: 10 September 2025
We are looking for a postdoc to work with us on the capacity limits of cognition (working memory, attention, long-term memory, ...).
Application deadline: 10 September 2025
ESCOP - Postdoc (80%) in the Cognition Lab at University of Zurich, Switzerland
ESCOP is a dynamic scientific society that provides a venue within which current research in cognitive psychology and neighboring disciplines can be presented, discussed and encouraged.
www.escop.eu
August 7, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Postdoc (80%) in the Cognition Lab at University of Zurich, Switzerland
We are looking for a postdoc to work with us on the capacity limits of cognition (working memory, attention, long-term memory, ...).
Application deadline: 10 September 2025
We are looking for a postdoc to work with us on the capacity limits of cognition (working memory, attention, long-term memory, ...).
Application deadline: 10 September 2025
Reposted by John Mansfield
In "Mathematical Structure of Syntactic Merge," Matilde Marcolli, Noam Chomsky, & Robert C. Berwick present a complete, precise mathematical formalization of Chomsky's most recent theory of Merge. #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/9780262552523
August 5, 2025 at 8:29 PM
In "Mathematical Structure of Syntactic Merge," Matilde Marcolli, Noam Chomsky, & Robert C. Berwick present a complete, precise mathematical formalization of Chomsky's most recent theory of Merge. #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/9780262552523
PhD position to study conversational coordination with Prof Adrian Bangerter at Uni Neuchatel www.unine.ch/ipto/wp-cont...
www.unine.ch
August 1, 2025 at 5:45 AM
PhD position to study conversational coordination with Prof Adrian Bangerter at Uni Neuchatel www.unine.ch/ipto/wp-cont...
Piss weak, genocide complicit, Australian government
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Albanese accuses Israel of ‘clearly’ breaching international law but resists push to recognise Palestinian state
‘Quite clearly it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered,’ PM tells ABC’s Insiders
www.theguardian.com
July 27, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Piss weak, genocide complicit, Australian government
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
automated message from hotel booking:
"We're counting down the days until your arrival, eagerly anticipating the opportunity to provide you with a truly memorable stay. "
"We're counting down the days until your arrival, eagerly anticipating the opportunity to provide you with a truly memorable stay. "
July 25, 2025 at 6:42 PM
automated message from hotel booking:
"We're counting down the days until your arrival, eagerly anticipating the opportunity to provide you with a truly memorable stay. "
"We're counting down the days until your arrival, eagerly anticipating the opportunity to provide you with a truly memorable stay. "
Reposted by John Mansfield
Growing up in an unconventional country town, PhD candidate @manikyaalister.bsky.social has always been fascinated by how people learn and make decisions.
“We are social creatures that learn from each other every day.”
Read more: go.unimelb.edu.au/wn7p
“We are social creatures that learn from each other every day.”
Read more: go.unimelb.edu.au/wn7p
‘We are social creatures that learn from each other every day’: Manikya Alister explores social learning and decision-making
‘We are social creatures that learn from each other every day’: Manikya Alister explores social learning and decision-making
psychologicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au
July 18, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Growing up in an unconventional country town, PhD candidate @manikyaalister.bsky.social has always been fascinated by how people learn and make decisions.
“We are social creatures that learn from each other every day.”
Read more: go.unimelb.edu.au/wn7p
“We are social creatures that learn from each other every day.”
Read more: go.unimelb.edu.au/wn7p
Reposted by John Mansfield
New volume on the interface between languages, human history, anthropology, archaeology and (a bit of) genetics, curated by M. Robbeets and M. Hudson. A very rich table of content for everyone interested in these multidisciplinary studies of the human past. I contributed two chapters:
The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology and Language
Abstract. Linguists have long described their findings in an archaeological context, while archaeologists have been interested in what language can tell th
academic.oup.com
July 23, 2025 at 4:45 PM
New volume on the interface between languages, human history, anthropology, archaeology and (a bit of) genetics, curated by M. Robbeets and M. Hudson. A very rich table of content for everyone interested in these multidisciplinary studies of the human past. I contributed two chapters: