Nice bit of digital humanities here - using AI to transcribe more than 32,000 manuscripts in the space of a few months. But with two years of preparation in training the model and creating standards for automating manuscript transcription www.inria.fr/en/comma-med...

'Timelines' we live in, with and by - little linguistic investigation #linguistics makingsciencepublic.com/2026/01/09/t...

You either love false dichotomies or you don't.

We're going to need a bigger Hague.

Happy New Year to everyone and all the best for 2026. And whatever you do, don't blink

Understanding the Difference: Disinterested vs Uninterested The debate between "uninterested" and "disinterested" has a long history rooted in semantics. Traditionally, some people insist, "disinterested" meant "impartial" while "uninterested" referred to being "indifferent." However, overlapping…

Merry Christmas to everyone seeing this youtu.be/uZdg-L2s-bc?...

I was thinking about getting Colleen a new fridge for Christmas.. Just to see her face light up when she opens it RS

#GVerse 😂😱🤣

He saw the light.

Perhaps the most unusual request for consultancy services I have ever received:

New Substack post Mules of meaning: complex noun phrases open.substack.com/pub/basaarts...

New resource for researchers and teachers! The Word List Repository is a hub for word lists in any language and on any topic. It is possible to carry out a search for a list by name, language and category (e.g. academic, business, etc). All lists are hosted by permission of their creators.

The great Maggie Charles leading the line at today's BAAL symposium on EAP / #CorpusLinguistics / AI @ Coventry Uni. All speakers covered different projects, but all roads led back to ethical use of AI and academic integrity

♫ 12 drummers drumming ♫ 11 pipers piping ♫ 10 lords a-leaping ♫ 9 ladies dancing ♫ 8 maids a-milking ♫ 7 swans a-swimming ♫ 6 geese a-laying ♫

Painfully accurate. open.substack.com/pub/chrisdil...

Well that answers one of the big questions for me...

When I first saw this I thought it was a @ucu.org.uk attack ad to protest against increasing casualisation and enshittification of higher education, but no, it's an earnest and serious ad from an allegedly serious university. Unbelievable.

My work computer was down.. sorry *upgraded* to Windows 11 yesterday. I'm having such fun setting up. BREAKING: Outlook just decided to 'archive' a load of current emails. Sigh

Prepping for my favourite class: my students get to do some hands-on lexicography, using the #Lexonomy online platform. If they're interested in the language(s) sector as a career, they can create & publish a dictionary on their favourite topic, as a showcase for potential employers #langsky

In an X-certificate exercise Ex-servicemen excrete Keith Joseph smiles and a baby dies In a box on Beasley Street

Here's an overview of a few of the #WOTY2025 choices so far. theconversation.com/2025s-words-...

The Nobel Prize committee should announce the World Cup winner tomorrow

During our staff Xmas meal the other night, the conversation turned, at one point, to Stephen Fry. Now I quite like him, but I'm not a superfan, and didn't contribute *that* much to the conversation. I didn't look at youtube yesterday, but this morning... How on earth does this happen?

I'm old enough to remember when AI stood for Artistic Integrity RS

Are we actually going to get a #WorldCupDraw, rather than just singing & dancing, pointless speeches, and stupid stuff involving Donald Trump ?

Interesting piece on why accents can change in adulthood, touching on geography, identity, prestige, intelligibility, professional status, and other social forces 🗣💬

Not one police officer, not one 😡😡😡 #jft97 #YNWA

Not now, radioactive fungus

One previous owner ( Dom Joly )

Not his best play, but marvellous stuff. Witty, well observed, politically astute. The academic-really-interested-in-football stuff strikes home. www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5MY...

@arrantpedantry.com juxtaposition

People have forgotten the true meaning of #BlackFriday . In my day, a chimney sweep would turn up at your house in a black cab, smear the kids' faces with soot, and then we'd all sit down in front of the telly with a bag of liquorice to watch New Zealand play rugby

Perhaps she got confused between alms and arms

my absolute favourite thing of universities buying office 365 licenses is when they do not allow you to share document access with people from other universities because, FAMOUSLY, we do not collaborate

Slightly disconcerting feeling when I found out that the lead speaker at an academic event I'm due to attend next week has exactly the same name as, erm, the former mrs @lexicoj0hn

"And I guess that’s why I hate AI in the classroom as much as I do. Students are afraid to fail, and AI presents itself as a savior. But what we learn from history is that progress requires failure. It requires reflection."

someone tell the Telegraph the new REF panels just dropped

Curious, because the word 'people' in French means celebrities. Maybe Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet sent their children there

Wouldn't it be nice if humans could do this too?

when I was young, i used to wonder how people like this would fare in life, as they didn't seem suited for gainful employment. it turns out, the internet allowed them to accumulate a massive audience of similar idiots, enriching them and turning them into a presidential advisor

Just wondering if there is a minimum timespan for something to qualify as 'great' in this strong sense (as opposed to the weaker sense of 'that was a great read/meal/holiday')? OK, JFK, with < 3 years in office, is often described as one of the greatest US presidents, but that's with hindsight

Jésus parvient à transformer le Beaujolais Nouveau en vin https://www.legorafi.fr/2025/11/17/jesus-parvient-a-transformer-le-beaujolais-nouveau-en-vin/

#Forensic #linguistics: how dark web criminals give themselves away with their language theconversation.com/forensic-lin... via @theconversation.bsky.social #langsky

Language matters. Asylum seekers live in appalling conditions but the buildings are described as "hotels". Members of the Royal family live a life of luxury and privilege but their homes are often called "cottage" or "lodge". Why not just describe things accurately?

"Call it the paradox of the modern dictionary. We’re in a golden age for the study and appreciation of words ... But these advances are also strangling the business of the dictionary. " www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...