Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
@kayaulai.bsky.social
Asst prof @universityofga.bsky.social, PhD grad @ucsbling.bsky.social. I study how we use grammar in everyday life. Made in 🇭🇰
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
just finished steve levinson's new book! it's a beautifully articulated argument for social interaction as the evolutionary niche which made language possible, rather than the other way around. progress in linguistics depends on a stronger science of interaction.
www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...
www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...
The Interaction Engine
Cambridge Core - Semantics and Pragmatics - The Interaction Engine
www.cambridge.org
October 12, 2025 at 8:20 PM
just finished steve levinson's new book! it's a beautifully articulated argument for social interaction as the evolutionary niche which made language possible, rather than the other way around. progress in linguistics depends on a stronger science of interaction.
www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...
www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...
Since TalkBank required logins, is there still a way to download files programmatically, when using tools like pylangacq?
August 16, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Since TalkBank required logins, is there still a way to download files programmatically, when using tools like pylangacq?
It's really unfortunate that multiple correspondence analysis should be called that when the generalisation from PCA to MCA is so much more intuitive than from CA to MCA
August 10, 2025 at 4:31 AM
It's really unfortunate that multiple correspondence analysis should be called that when the generalisation from PCA to MCA is so much more intuitive than from CA to MCA
Is it just me or are people not misspelling 'definitely' as much as they used to
June 12, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Is it just me or are people not misspelling 'definitely' as much as they used to
I think constructive criticism is very important for linguistics, but when reviewing a manuscript full of errors, I think the way to go is to reject it with a critical review; to post about it on the Internet while hinting at who the authors are seems rather inappropriate ...
June 5, 2025 at 7:46 PM
I think constructive criticism is very important for linguistics, but when reviewing a manuscript full of errors, I think the way to go is to reject it with a critical review; to post about it on the Internet while hinting at who the authors are seems rather inappropriate ...
PSA to students in computational fields: please never touch your base Anaconda environment and make sure you create a new environment for every class or project. Your future you (and instructors/TAs) will thank you - you'll spend much less time in dealing with dependencies and more on code!
June 3, 2025 at 10:15 PM
PSA to students in computational fields: please never touch your base Anaconda environment and make sure you create a new environment for every class or project. Your future you (and instructors/TAs) will thank you - you'll spend much less time in dealing with dependencies and more on code!
is it pretentious to have definition/theorem/lemma/proposition type stuff in a linguistics paper? Have something that will probably benefit from those but don't want to look like a maths snob or stemlord lol
June 1, 2025 at 11:42 PM
is it pretentious to have definition/theorem/lemma/proposition type stuff in a linguistics paper? Have something that will probably benefit from those but don't want to look like a maths snob or stemlord lol
I seriously question whether people who made the term Chinese restaurant process have been to a Chinese restaurant in peak hours because you most definitely don't *always* have room for another table or are able to fit in another person in a table
May 29, 2025 at 6:40 PM
I seriously question whether people who made the term Chinese restaurant process have been to a Chinese restaurant in peak hours because you most definitely don't *always* have room for another table or are able to fit in another person in a table
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
Si quieres saber más sobre la base empírica de algunos argumentos que se han ofrecido a favor o en contra del lenguaje inclusivo (con especial interés en el castellano), en este capítulo (en inglés) recopilamos algunos de los más escuchados 📚
May 19, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Si quieres saber más sobre la base empírica de algunos argumentos que se han ofrecido a favor o en contra del lenguaje inclusivo (con especial interés en el castellano), en este capítulo (en inglés) recopilamos algunos de los más escuchados 📚
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
18. Coulter (1991) "Is the 'New Sentence Problem' a Genuine Problem?" Theory & Psychology 1:3 pp. 317-336
#JeffCoulter #EMCA
drive.google.com/file/d/1XIOm...
#JeffCoulter #EMCA
drive.google.com/file/d/1XIOm...
Coulter - 1991 - Is the `New Sentence Problem' a Genuine Problem.pdf
drive.google.com
May 18, 2025 at 7:30 PM
18. Coulter (1991) "Is the 'New Sentence Problem' a Genuine Problem?" Theory & Psychology 1:3 pp. 317-336
#JeffCoulter #EMCA
drive.google.com/file/d/1XIOm...
#JeffCoulter #EMCA
drive.google.com/file/d/1XIOm...
Obviously the importance of missionary grammars, dictionaries and texts for historical linguistics cannot be understated, but I wish we weren't glorifying Spanish colonialism when doing that work ...
May 15, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Obviously the importance of missionary grammars, dictionaries and texts for historical linguistics cannot be understated, but I wish we weren't glorifying Spanish colonialism when doing that work ...
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
priorsense 1.1.1, for prior and likelihood sensitivity analysis, is now in CRAN (n-kall.github.io/priorsense/)
There is now an easier way to select which priors are power-scaled using the new prior tags feature in brms (2.22.11+), which allows focusing the analysis on specific priors.
1/3
There is now an easier way to select which priors are power-scaled using the new prior tags feature in brms (2.22.11+), which allows focusing the analysis on specific priors.
1/3
Prior Diagnostics and Sensitivity Analysis
Provides functions for prior and likelihood sensitivity analysis in Bayesian models. Currently it implements methods to determine the sensitivity of the posterior to power-scaling perturbations of the...
n-kall.github.io
April 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
priorsense 1.1.1, for prior and likelihood sensitivity analysis, is now in CRAN (n-kall.github.io/priorsense/)
There is now an easier way to select which priors are power-scaled using the new prior tags feature in brms (2.22.11+), which allows focusing the analysis on specific priors.
1/3
There is now an easier way to select which priors are power-scaled using the new prior tags feature in brms (2.22.11+), which allows focusing the analysis on specific priors.
1/3
It's so weird whenever I see a statistics book from De Gruyter. Like, you're not supposed to look like that! You're supposed to look like CRC Press or at least Springer!
April 15, 2025 at 10:05 PM
It's so weird whenever I see a statistics book from De Gruyter. Like, you're not supposed to look like that! You're supposed to look like CRC Press or at least Springer!
Finishing my dissertation and turning it into one file is wild ... One small formatting change and word takes 10 sec to load and you probably broke something 30 pages away. Great reminder of why I'll never want to write a monograph despite my tendencies for verbosity
April 9, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Finishing my dissertation and turning it into one file is wild ... One small formatting change and word takes 10 sec to load and you probably broke something 30 pages away. Great reminder of why I'll never want to write a monograph despite my tendencies for verbosity
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
"The Anti-Slices" -- gives me strong band name vibes, but maybe this Englishing of fanqie 反切 should rather not be imitated. 🤔
March 19, 2025 at 1:29 PM
"The Anti-Slices" -- gives me strong band name vibes, but maybe this Englishing of fanqie 反切 should rather not be imitated. 🤔
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
🚀 New #ICLR2025 Paper Alert! 🚀
Can Audio Foundation Models like Moshi and GPT-4o truly engage in natural conversations? 🗣️🔊
We benchmark their turn-taking abilities and uncover major gaps in conversational AI. 🧵👇
📜: arxiv.org/abs/2503.01174
Can Audio Foundation Models like Moshi and GPT-4o truly engage in natural conversations? 🗣️🔊
We benchmark their turn-taking abilities and uncover major gaps in conversational AI. 🧵👇
📜: arxiv.org/abs/2503.01174
March 5, 2025 at 4:03 PM
🚀 New #ICLR2025 Paper Alert! 🚀
Can Audio Foundation Models like Moshi and GPT-4o truly engage in natural conversations? 🗣️🔊
We benchmark their turn-taking abilities and uncover major gaps in conversational AI. 🧵👇
📜: arxiv.org/abs/2503.01174
Can Audio Foundation Models like Moshi and GPT-4o truly engage in natural conversations? 🗣️🔊
We benchmark their turn-taking abilities and uncover major gaps in conversational AI. 🧵👇
📜: arxiv.org/abs/2503.01174
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
Vocabulary isn't just about learning words.
Research shows that knowing word combinations can significantly boost language skills & reading fluency for #multilingual learners.
Full article by Riches, N. et al.
doi:10.1017/S0305000921000490
#EduSky #EAL
Research shows that knowing word combinations can significantly boost language skills & reading fluency for #multilingual learners.
Full article by Riches, N. et al.
doi:10.1017/S0305000921000490
#EduSky #EAL
February 17, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Vocabulary isn't just about learning words.
Research shows that knowing word combinations can significantly boost language skills & reading fluency for #multilingual learners.
Full article by Riches, N. et al.
doi:10.1017/S0305000921000490
#EduSky #EAL
Research shows that knowing word combinations can significantly boost language skills & reading fluency for #multilingual learners.
Full article by Riches, N. et al.
doi:10.1017/S0305000921000490
#EduSky #EAL
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
New paper: @jessaiston.bsky.social, @nelya-kot.bsky.social and @martinevandriel.bsky.social "show how discourse analysis can shed light on the valuable role of interest-driven interactions, both among autistic people and between autistic and non-autistic people."
academic.oup.com/applij/advan...
academic.oup.com/applij/advan...
Discourse-based approaches to autistic focussed interests: Understanding shared focus, mutual accommodation, and multimodal expression
Abstract. Interactions between autistic and non-autistic people are often characterized by misunderstanding and a ‘double empathy problem’ (Milton, Gurbuz,
academic.oup.com
February 16, 2025 at 12:23 PM
New paper: @jessaiston.bsky.social, @nelya-kot.bsky.social and @martinevandriel.bsky.social "show how discourse analysis can shed light on the valuable role of interest-driven interactions, both among autistic people and between autistic and non-autistic people."
academic.oup.com/applij/advan...
academic.oup.com/applij/advan...
Every time I mention CDMX (墨西哥城) to my parents, my mum asks where that is. Then I say of course it's in Mexico, it's in the name! Then she says but you said New Mexico (新墨西哥) is in the US, so I have to make sure.
February 17, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Every time I mention CDMX (墨西哥城) to my parents, my mum asks where that is. Then I say of course it's in Mexico, it's in the name! Then she says but you said New Mexico (新墨西哥) is in the US, so I have to make sure.
US states by whether I know the Chinese transliteration of the name, inspired by a conversation with @sidneygjwong.bsky.social
February 17, 2025 at 6:37 AM
US states by whether I know the Chinese transliteration of the name, inspired by a conversation with @sidneygjwong.bsky.social
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
In case you ever wondered about the differences between magrittr pipe and base pipe 🤔
This table is taken from a great stackoverflow answer by @GeorgKindermann
stackoverflow.com/questions/67...
#rstats #dataviz #phd
This table is taken from a great stackoverflow answer by @GeorgKindermann
stackoverflow.com/questions/67...
#rstats #dataviz #phd
January 23, 2025 at 4:59 PM
In case you ever wondered about the differences between magrittr pipe and base pipe 🤔
This table is taken from a great stackoverflow answer by @GeorgKindermann
stackoverflow.com/questions/67...
#rstats #dataviz #phd
This table is taken from a great stackoverflow answer by @GeorgKindermann
stackoverflow.com/questions/67...
#rstats #dataviz #phd
In CA, Berkeley see themselves as Cal while everyone else enjoys calling them UCB, which they hate. Is there a similar dynamic in other US states with similar naming systems like TX (Austin), MN (Twin Cities), CO (Boulder), NC (Chapel Hill), MA (Amherst) etc?
January 4, 2025 at 10:06 PM
In CA, Berkeley see themselves as Cal while everyone else enjoys calling them UCB, which they hate. Is there a similar dynamic in other US states with similar naming systems like TX (Austin), MN (Twin Cities), CO (Boulder), NC (Chapel Hill), MA (Amherst) etc?
Reposted by Ryan Ka Yau Lai (黎嘉祐, he/him)
The Danish linguist Hans Jørgensen also died 1954. He worked on the #Newar language of Nepal - and his main works are already digitized by the Danish Royal academy 👐💬 publ.royalacademy.dk/search?q=&filter[years-from][]=&filter[authors][]=1294&filter[sort-by][]=2
publ.royalacademy.dk
January 4, 2025 at 10:01 PM
The Danish linguist Hans Jørgensen also died 1954. He worked on the #Newar language of Nepal - and his main works are already digitized by the Danish Royal academy 👐💬 publ.royalacademy.dk/search?q=&filter[years-from][]=&filter[authors][]=1294&filter[sort-by][]=2