[Exit Clown.]

Just went to clear this week’s reading in Perusall ahead of NWAV. Past Jessi did not assign any reading so that today Jessi can just focus on NWAV. Past Jessi is the real MVP; love that chick. She also put dinner in the crockpot and scheduled the housekeeper to come Thursday.

While I always hope that every election draws in *some* new voters, it is hilarious to me the way people very seriously explain how to fill out my ballot. I can't imagine that there are tons of people coming out for the very first time just to vote on a new millage. Yeah, I know how to bubble it in.

Gehringer and Grieser “Shifting Vowels in a Stable Place” retrieved from the printer! Poster session 1; Poster #20. #nwav53 #ncvs #michiganEnglish

It's a picture-perfect day in Ann Arbor! Welcome to #nwav53, attendees! Check out the NWAV 53 "Getting Around" information for conference information, including accessibility, and importantly—restaurant recommendations for tonight and beyond! docs.google.com/document/d/e...

Sparty No!

Coming to NWAV? Just NWAV curious? Check out all the talks and abstracts on our Oxford Abstracts program! You can make a free account on OxAbs to make a personal program with specific saved sessions. Registration prices go up Monday! See you soon! virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/event/75494/...

Having an administrative night has become super important to my sanity and I'm getting better and better at it. This year's improvement has been using the snooze function in gMail to email myself back at 8:00 on Wednesday nights and 4:00 PM Sundays with small tasks.

NWAV is one week away and today is the very first day I have forgotten to pack my lunch. I think this speaks very highly of my organizational capabilities. Registration rates go up on Sunday! See you soon. nwav53.ling.lsa.umich.edu

October 28, 2025: White America learns about the concept of "aunties."

I came across someone praising me on Reddit for being one of the best fan writers for my ship and like, I’m a tenured prof at a great school but I am kinda more proud of that Reddit post? And no you don’t get to know which ship.

We’re not looking away from the fact that invoking, “Well the Black guy built a basketball court” as justification for the ballroom is, in addition to being a misrepresentation and bad justification, also extremely racist, right?

My take on office hours: "Students act like it's cheating to come to office hours. But I want to help you to write an awesome thing that shows you did a lot of learning and then give you a ton of points for writing an awesome thing that shows you did a lot of learning."

Syntax tree of the day

I’ll say it straight: It is unbecoming, undignified, cowardly, and shameful for a institution as revered and respected as the University of Virginia to grant an audience in 2025 to those who are committed to destroying science, free thought, human rights, and the rule of law.

Imagine working in a restaurant where the boss tells you the job performance is based only on tables served. But then every shift you are scheduled to the stockroom, the dishwashing station, and occasionally to like, trim the hedges outside. Anyway. I'm an associate professor...

Loving this database view in Notion. Each of my Ph.D. students is a line on a Gantt from start month to planned grad and the color is where they are in the program (pre quals, in quals, pre-prospectus, dissertating). Clicking on the line leads to all my advising notes.

My teaching assignments next term are: Language and Discrimination and Language in the Post-Colonial Setting and I am not lying when I say I genuinely loved my old job but also...holy cow I love being in a department where we have enough linguists that I can teach stuff like this.

Where is @dropout.tv BlueSky? Which fans can I follow when I find myself spontaneously busting out "I'll be writing this down / 'cause I'm a professional" while working at night? #dropout #gamechanger

When my cousin once removed wore a MAGA hat to Christmas and was allowed to keep it on after I pointed out wearing it was impolite, I remarked that I was the one being asked to have a calm dinner with my racist cousins. Cousin: “So we’re your racist cousins now?” Me: “Oh honey, It’s not *new*…”

I have yet again disappointingly outed a bunch of LLM writers by assigning myself. "The Duocon video...." Did ya notice anything about the person speaking in that video? Like...that she also teaches your course?

Don't have time to read this yet but I can't wait. I'm one of the millennials who hangs around with people to whom I can say "I have a CSR and an Amex Plat" and getting the reply "Oh I have a CSP and a Blue Preferred" Currently debating switching my strategy to a Delta two punch, though.

HOMES letting us go into extra innings tonight. Get you a good local IPA brewery.

Cookies? Brownies? Vegan Raspberry bars? Pretzel bites? We're picking out the menu of nosh for poster sessions! Are you registered for NWAV yet? Come to Ann Arbor, have cookies. nwav53.ling.lsa.umich.edu

I always love what the auto expansion in Google tells me about the commonality of my question. What size allen wrench... ...for an insinkerator garbage disposal? Yep. Thanks, Google. (1/4 inch in case you need to know.) #homemaintenance #girlwithtools

Little sprinkles in my day right now are when I search for someone in my inbox and their NWAV registration (which is otherwise auto-hidden) pops up and then I know I am going to see them soon! NWAV registration is ongoing! nwav53.ling.lsa.umich.edu. See you in Ann Arbor!

Articles to write: phrase semantics of “, actually”

Deadline 11/15 "candidates whose work develops computational methods in any area of linguistics and specifically connects linguistics to artificial intelligence" faculty.utexas.edu/career/170793

Writing a dissertation shouldn't be miserable and painful. If it is, seek support. But writing a dissertation shouldn't be a cakewalk, either. It should feel challenging and at times it will feel insurmountable. The latter isn't the former. This message is for both students and advisors.

I am in my "Board of Directors" era and I am SO BUSY but I was made for this kind of work and I absolutely love it. I was born to make organizations run. #CRLT #LingSocAm #ELCAChurchCouncil #butseriouslyIshouldntbeonanymoreboards

Just having a moment reflecting on what a ridiculous state we're in, where the president is making "deals" with private universities by personally meddling in federally allocated education and research funding and this is being treated as just ordinary politics.

This is only compounded by the fact that pretty much all speech and visual “AI” systems dramatically underperform for minoritized populations due to smaller training data, poor model assumptions, and the fact that tech companies DGAF about black people.

This format is incredibly helpful for reframing debates. It's also pragmatics 101. Negation only operates on the "comment"/focused part of an utterance. If you introduce a presupposition, negation will not be able to eliminate it. Example: A: Have you stopped stealing office supplies? B: Yes/No?

New report shows a catastrophic decline in formal language learning

[white [student athlete] jerseys] not [[white student athlete] jerseys] But picking a jersey from a Black player would’ve helped here, M Den!!

OH NOES! What does this mean for you? You keep your asset allocation according to when you plan to retire, and invest according to the same schedule as always.

Dufour: “Hegseth thinks this is cool” My tumblr-addicted ass: “More interesting is the fact that neither Dufour nor Hegseth understand the pragmatics of ‘cool story, bro.’”

At dinner tonight I produced the malapropism “Charlie Klein” and yeah that says a lot about where we are right now.

We get the Kirby! Too bad to those of you who don’t get a Kirby this weekend.

I don't remember if it was normed, but @ludling.bsky.social, Lex Konnelly, and Pocholo Umbal created the Diverse Names database at UofT a few years ago: sanders.phonologist.org/Papers/konne...

Jessi already for the one she was looking for, but for posterity: lmackerman.shinyapps.io/Names_Explor... (though it's been a while since I could update it... I do have big plans though!)

Not a bad day. Time for dinner.

Sociolinguistsky, who created/was creating the normed name database for differently gendered names across different language groups/ethnic backgrounds? @rikker.bsky.social was that you? Having trouble locating it for an undergrad working on a cool thesis.

I'm at an institution where I have the funds to donate a student attendance to the @lingsocam.bsky.social annual meeting. I did mine, did you??? Early Bird Registration is open! See you in New Orleans.

please share!

The phrase “herding cats” has become hilarious to me since I got two kittens to accompany my Australian Cattle Dog. Cats are very easily herded. it’s just that most people don’t want the dog that has the energy necessary to herd them the other 98% of the time.

That was too much of a nailbiter and yet they looked good? Mergh.

@theonion.com has lately been killing it at examples of journalistic null copula, which is my favorite example these days to show students how we accept that structure in some pretty prestigious places, but not when Black people say it.

Here is a pattern I need the pattern programming people to program--very close to 100% of the time when I receive an email from a graduate student, I want to save the thing that is attached to that student's folder. Why Gmail cannot hold a persistent folder suggestion is beyond me.