Simon Kirby
@simonkirby.bsky.social
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
Pinned
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...
Reposted by Simon Kirby
⚠️ 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...
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
November 10, 2025 at 11:59 AM
⚠️ 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...
In @cognitionjournal.bsky.social w/ @simonkirby.bsky.social & Jenny Culbertson.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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
October 1, 2025 at 10:47 AM
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.
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 😊
July 8, 2025 at 9:51 PM
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
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 🧪
May 27, 2025 at 5:56 AM
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 🧪
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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
July 7, 2025 at 11:21 AM
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
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...
June 30, 2025 at 12:02 PM
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...
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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
#PhDone
July 7, 2025 at 1:18 PM
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
#PhDone
Reposted by Simon Kirby
Scientists must push back against the threat of rising white nationalism and the dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics
https://go.nature.com/4jGqiUc
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
April 24, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Scientists must push back against the threat of rising white nationalism and the dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics
https://go.nature.com/4jGqiUc
https://go.nature.com/4jGqiUc
So lucky and proud to have someone as dedicated to his students as Christian as a colleague.
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
@schoolofppls.bsky.social
April 25, 2025 at 7:05 AM
So lucky and proud to have someone as dedicated to his students as Christian as a colleague.
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
April 24, 2025 at 10:01 AM
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...
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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.🤗
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.🤗
April 23, 2025 at 9:05 PM
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.🤗
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 Simon Kirby
If six months ago you'd told me that in autumn 2025 I'd have to go to Canada to get my annual COVID vaccine but I wouldn't do it because coming back through immigrations was too risky for someone who had criticized the government, I would have looked at you like you were having a stroke.
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"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:q25tg5qy6kzwtuecpe6b4shw/bafkreie7wm23po34vcypd5357s2a2dgav7bhdzypwmkdjgb7jxsfijjf2y@jpeg)
April 23, 2025 at 6:51 PM
If six months ago you'd told me that in autumn 2025 I'd have to go to Canada to get my annual COVID vaccine but I wouldn't do it because coming back through immigrations was too risky for someone who had criticized the government, I would have looked at you like you were having a stroke.
Reposted by Simon Kirby
"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
April 23, 2025 at 3:20 PM
"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:
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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
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
April 22, 2025 at 8:28 AM
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
https://go.nature.com/42pvdDe
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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
April 21, 2025 at 4:29 PM
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...
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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-...
April 21, 2025 at 11:40 AM
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
These are now woke DEI books
April 20, 2025 at 7:00 AM
These are now woke DEI books
Reposted by Simon Kirby
April 20, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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
#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
April 19, 2025 at 12:02 AM
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
#Linguistics #DeafCommunities #IndigenousCommunities
#RacializedCommunities
#MinoritizedCommunities
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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.
April 19, 2025 at 2:32 PM
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.
Reposted by Simon Kirby
Given the state of the US, there's an opportunity for UK HE to stick its nostrils above the waves for a bit and keep paddling, but the govt's terror about Reform in the red wall will, it seems, block that and leave one of the UK's international export successes to drown. Totally irrational.
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.
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
April 17, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Given the state of the US, there's an opportunity for UK HE to stick its nostrils above the waves for a bit and keep paddling, but the govt's terror about Reform in the red wall will, it seems, block that and leave one of the UK's international export successes to drown. Totally irrational.
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
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.
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
April 17, 2025 at 1:53 PM
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
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.
April 17, 2025 at 12:19 PM
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.
Reposted by Simon Kirby
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
April 17, 2025 at 3:24 AM
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... 🔭 🧪
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.
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 💗🏳️⚧️
April 16, 2025 at 2:37 PM
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.