This year’s schedule and lineup of incredible talks and panels are live! Visit adventurexpo.org for details. Join us at #AdvX26 in London on 7-8 November to hear from @sallybeaumont.bsky.social, @theexaminedgame.bsky.social, and more amazing gaming pros. Keynotes coming soon! Follow for updates

I have a new paper out in Science today with colleagues Damian Blasi, Marcus Hamilton, and Russell Gray. www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

The rise and fall of language diversity through the Holocene

Characterizing the factors that have shaped linguistic diversity is fundamental for understanding human history, culture, and cognition. In this study, we combined statistical and social computational...

science.org

How many languages were spoken in the past? This is an astonishingly good attempt to answer this question: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The rise and fall of language diversity through the Holocene

Characterizing the factors that have shaped linguistic diversity is fundamental for understanding human history, culture, and cognition. In this study, we combined statistical and social computational...

science.org

Proceedings of the AI in Language Evolution workshop at Evolang XVI, ed. by Bart de Boer, are now online (pdf) #language #linguistics ai.vub.ac.be/~bart/AI_in_...

Out now: The full proceedings volume of this year's #Evolang @evolangconf.bsky.social - 575 pages full of interdisciplinary research on the origins and evolution of language! doi.org/10.17617/2.3...

How did language evolve? We ran some experiments in Minecraft to find out! youtu.be/7vgS8s6MhSk?... And link to paper: academic.oup.com/jole/article...

How does language evolve?

YouTube video by Science Animated

youtu.be

We had a great time at #AdventureX in November. You can now watch our our talk on women's dialogue in video games here ... With BSL interpretation! #videogames #linguistics www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA--...

AdventureX 2025 – Talk: Steph Rennick & Seán Roberts "Women's Dialogue in Video Games"

YouTube video by AdventureX

youtube.com

Short post about our TiCS paper "The 'design features' of language revisited" on the news portal of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (in Polish) www.cell.com/trends/cogni... portal.umk.pl/pl/article/n...

Nowe spojrzenie na język

Nowe spojrzenie na język

portal.umk.pl

Looking for a gift for geeky kids? Check out this fun mission pack - use your STEM skills to fix the Voyager Space Probe! I had a lot of fun working with Collider Cafe on this. collidercafe.com/shop/ws-/pro...

Interactive #dialogue is a key mechanic in #videogames for giving the player a sense of agency. Can we improve player experiences by taking inspiration from real life conversations? Join our free online workshop for game developers, writers and researchers www.eventbrite.com/e/1977041007...

Can the way you speak affect your attitude to the future? Cole Robertson and I talk to @becauselanguage.com about our new work showing that, actually, maybe possibly could-sort-of-be-going-to-be definitely yes. becauselanguage.com/130-back-to-...

Last month we published a new experiment into how symbolic languages evolved. Today, we've published a follow-up, REVEALING WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. New paper with Kateryna Krykoniuk, Fiona Jordan and @gamemakerstoolkit.com. academic.oup.com/jole/article...

Get data early, get data often, iterate constantly: an explorative, participatory approach to studying language evolution

Abstract. We argue that, as well as an empirical approach borrowed from experimental psychology, studies of language evolution can also benefit from an exp

academic.oup.com

Liz Irvine and I once ran an experiment which went so wrong that I spent the next 10 years figuring out what had happened. Today we've published the explanation: a new theory for the evolution of symbolic signals (with Kateryna Krykoniuk & Fiona Jordan). academic.oup.com/jole/article...

The arena of language evolution: the emergence of symbolic referential signals in a common task framework

Abstract. We present the common task framework approach to testing causal theories about the evolution of language. There are now many theories about how s

academic.oup.com

A new twist to the idea that future tense use affects decision making👇 Cole Robertson @seangroberts.bsky.social et al show it’s not future tense that drives psychological discounting but how people express the possibility of future events happening (modality). authors.elsevier.com/c/1m4gJ2Hx2-...

Akira Miyake@amiyake.bsky.social · last yr.

If you want to have some good in-class discussion about Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (esp. linguistic relativity), this TED talk might do. In it, Keith Chen argues for the impact of "futured" vs. "futureless" languages on speakers' saving behaviors. Some students buy his claim, & others don't.

A little late in the witching hour, but Space Ghost Train 12 is here. youtu.be/l0x2nfpeElc #SpaceGhostTrain

Space Ghost Train 12

YouTube video by SeanGeraintRoberts

youtu.be

Nearly a third of women who play mobile video games in the UK feel guilty about their hobby – new study with Steph Rennick. theconversation.com/nearly-a-thi...

Nearly a third of female gamers feel guilty about their hobby – new study

Almost 60% felt that they do not play enough games to consider themselves a ‘gamer’ and more than 30% would be embarrassed to call themselves one.

theconversation.com

“The gender-equality paradox entails that countries with more equality have larger gender differences in behavior. Positive associations between equality & gender differences disappear or reverse when accounting for cultural clusters of countries. The paradox appears to be a methodological artifact”

Simpson’s gender-equality paradox | PNAS

Several cross-country examinations have found larger gender differences in Western countries. More recently, it has been argued, from an evolutiona...

pnas.org

I talked to @nhpr.org about the relationship between language and the environment! www.nhpr.org/environment/...

Outside/Inbox: Does the environment influence the evolution of a language?

"Most languages in the world are spoken by a small number of people in a relatively local place, and their language is probably really adapted to the kinds of things that they care about… and the way ...

nhpr.org

I got my copy of the Oxford Handbook of Approaches to Language Evolution! global.oup.com/academic/pro... It's amazing to see the investment that so many people have put into developing methods in our field! Kateryna Krykoniuk and I have a chapter on Causal Graphs in correlation-machine.com/CHIELD/

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 🧪

Sad to hear that Mike Peters has passed, but a fitting tribute here “He lived as he sang — with passion, courage, and an unshakeable belief in the power of people to make a difference.” nation.cymru/feature/goin...

Going out in a blaze of glory - saying goodbye to Mike Peters

John Geraint “He lived as he sang — with passion, courage, and an unshakeable belief in the power of people to make a difference.” Those were the words of his widow Jules, as we bade to Mike farewell ...

nation.cymru

New book on the Interaction Engine by Steve Levinson, a fresh perspective on one of the most influential ideas in linguistics: www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

The Interaction Engine

Cambridge Core - Evolution of Language - The Interaction Engine

cambridge.org

It's here! Linguistic Insecurities and Authorities, published by @johnbenjamins.bsky.social, written by me!

Introducing my new project… Your Wrong (yourwrong.co.uk). It’s all about the language rules and judgements that appear in different forms of popular culture. Films, series, podcasts, music, books, even graffiti! I’d love your help to find examples!

JOB ALERT in #language and #linguistics! Postdoc Position at the Center for Language Evolution Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. Job offer here: www.umk.pl/en/jobs/?tas... We are now looking at a broader candidate pool so do consider applying! Please repost & share widely!

Two more weeks to apply for this Post-Doc position in my project "Paths to Polysemy: Integrating Approaches to the Role of Polysemy in the Evolutionary Dynamics of Language.” Please share and dm me if you have any questions! euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/316751

assistant professor (adjunkt) - research staff - postdoctoral reasearcher; language evolution; (adiunkt - grupa badawcza)

The Center for Language Evolution Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, invites applications for a postdoctoral researcher position in an NCN-funded OPUS proje...

euraxess.ec.europa.eu

Michael Pleyer@symbolicstorage.bsky.social · 2y ago

JOB ALERT! Come work with me! 34-Month Postdoc Position here at the Center for Language Evolution Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in my project "Paths to Polysemy" Job offer here: www.umk.pl/en/jobs/?tas... Please repost & share widely!

I made a tool to add Balatro-style mechanics to D&D. Ever wanted to roll a billion points of damage? Now you can! Feedback welcome. correlation-machine.com/DnDPowerCards/

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...

This episode mentions GISST, which is basically a way to "quote" a video game - almost like a save state: gisst.pomona.edu Yes, you can emulate or watch on youtube, but being able to legally (under fair use, hopefully) share a playable segment of a game seems revolutionary for education & academia.

Video Game History Foundation@gamehistoryorg.bsky.social · 2y ago

Our latest Video Game History Hour podcast talks to The Strong's director of digital preservation Andrew Borman: gamehistory.org/episode-122-... (Reminder: Patreon subscribers - www.patreon.com/gamehistoryorg - get access a day early, and bonus episodes too!)

‘From Birds to Words: Onomatopoeia, Metaphor, and the Language of Birdsong’ Please join us for the inaugural lecture of Professor @bodowinter.bsky.social on Friday 21 February 2025 (16:00-17:00) in the Alan Walters Building, University of Birmingham.

From Birds to Words: Onomatopoeia, Metaphor, and the Language of Birdsong

From Birds to Words: Onomatopoeia, Metaphor, and the Language of Birdsong - Professor Bodo Winter's Inaugural Lecture

birmingham.ac.uk