David Adger
syntax and other stuff, mainly more linguistics and cogsci but occasional queerness, poetry, cats and @ans.bsky.social 🏳️🌈
https://davidadger.org
- Reposted by David AdgerSir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue
- Reposted by David AdgerOops
- Reposted by David AdgerWhat we all need to see is a red squirrel in a power pose. You're welcome.
- Reposted by David AdgerIllustrations from the beguiling Clavis Artis, a German alchemical manuscript which claims to hail from the 13th century and have pages made from dragon skin: publicdomainreview.org/collection/clavis-artis
- Reposted by David AdgerOne more time, syntax matters. I do hope the snake had a good time, though.
- Reposted by David AdgerI reckon it would be a good move for cinemas in the US to be showing the original Downfall film now. Magnificent film with huge relevance for today
- Reposted by David Adger“When it draws near to witching time of night.” (Robert Blair) 🎨 Charles Livingston Bull #owlishmonday
- Reposted by David AdgerNew blog post "Achievements 2025" userblogs.fu-berlin.de/langsci-pres...
- Reposted by David AdgerI really understand very little about the current version of reality.
- Reposted by David AdgerSame story over and over. These larpers - Kirkegard, Pesta et al - pumping out the same effluence with their strategy - exposed by @harryshukman.bsky.social + @hopenothate.org.uk - to normalise and spread scientific racism. They KNOW it's bullshit too. Read this: www.theguardian.com/world/2024/o...
- 🚨🚨🚨 "At least 63 times since 2007, data from some of the 28 human genomic repositories that the N.I.H. controls was improperly released to researchers, used for unapproved purposes or made vulnerable to theft..." (Gift Link) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...
- I've just used Good Law Project's tool to email MPs on the Council of Europe about the conversion therapy ban and Sex Matter’s transphobic threats. goodlaw.social/9f10d1
- Reposted by David AdgerI just created a series of seven deep-dive videos about AI, which I've posted to youtube and now here. 😊 Targeted to laypeople, they explore how LLMs work, what they can do, and what impacts they have on learning, well-being, disinformation, the workplace, the economy, and the environment.
- Do love some syntactic ambiguity in the morning
- Reposted by David AdgerYou can find me in the Times flying the flag for humanities and social sciences in this story about changes to funding at @ukri.org www.thetimes.com/article/be92...
- Reposted by David AdgerI feel I should bang the drum for this post, which hasn't received the love it deserves. It helps to know that Jenrick's constituency is Newark.
- Reposted by David Adger“The United States will not let men steal trophies from women…” - says guy who happily took the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a woman
- Reposted by David AdgerThe Doomsday Machine that is our university funding system will destroy everything in the end. First it destroys individual lives, then social mobility, then most universities, followed by the structure of income tax and the pension system. In the end it could threaten to destroy the economy itself.
- Reposted by David AdgerThe new chair of EHRC within first week seeking to meet with transphobic group about how to collaborate 🤮 So much for Stephenson wanting to build relationships with LGBTQI+ community again and to be judged on her actions. The fight continues. Wonder what @commonswec.parliament.uk can do?
- great post by @dingemansemark.bsky.social on predatory publishers in academia, some of whom are quite well established and reputable ideophone.org/on-plagiaris...
- Reposted by David AdgerPlease help spread the word on this, especially to those who may be feeling cold winds towards their research. We’ve opened the call for our International Fellowships, enabling early career researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
- Reposted by David AdgerJust published "The (in)transparency of meaning change and variation: A study of the indefinite cualquiera in European and Argentinian Spanish" by Olga Kellert #openaccess #ahl langsci-press.org/catalog/book...
- Reposted by David AdgerExcited to share that our book "History of Ideas in the Science of AI" (co-authored with Luc Steels and Ann Dooms) is now freely available as #OpenAccess! #OpenScience, #AIResearch, #HistoryOfAI doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
- Reposted by David Adgerour profile of Nadhim Zahawi from 2023, including - his friendship with author-turned-jailbird Jeffrey Archer - his HMRC settlement of nearly £5mn, made up of £3.7mn of unpaid taxes, a £1.1mn fine and some interest - his work as an oil industry fixer *while* a Tory MP www.ft.com/content/9a49...
- Reposted by David AdgerSentence Processing by Matthew Wagers: doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.6…
- Reposted by David Adgera decade is a long time in politics
- Reposted by David Adgervery disappointing. There is a code of conduct for Royal Society fellows - it's not a value judgement to say that Musk has contravened it! see relevant bits of code and the Royal Society stated values below.
- Musk should remain member of UK Royal Society, says president ft.trib.al/tC0vaAa
- My new book is available open access from MITPress. It's a pretty new take on syntax, with some cool consequences for long-distance syntactic dependencies, and I think it should also appeal to non-minimalist syntacticians (since there isn't really any movement!) direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
- Reposted by David AdgerDot-watching link is now live for @spinerace.bsky.social I'm the 🔵 (#195: non-binary category), so easy to spot 😂 Remember that messages of encouragment / kicks up the arse can also be left on this site 😉 #spinerace #pennineway #ultramarathon live.opentracking.co.uk/spinerace26/
- Reposted by David AdgerHey #linguistics check out this headline. The human language faculty is truly miraculous.
- Reposted by David AdgerFirst paper of 2026 with Rhys Sandow, @jwgrieve.bsky.social, and Rose Stamp! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
- Reposted by David AdgerWe’ve today formally written to multiple public bodies about BBC reporting on transgender people. Here’s who we’ve contacted and why. 1/6
- eeek! I plan to be at the end with a pint in hand to welcome Anson to the Scottish Borders!!
- Dot-watching link is now live for @spinerace.bsky.social I'm the 🔵 (#195: non-binary category), so easy to spot 😂 Remember that messages of encouragment / kicks up the arse can also be left on this site 😉 #spinerace #pennineway #ultramarathon live.opentracking.co.uk/spinerace26/
- Reposted by David AdgerPacking an extensive mandatory kit for @spinerace.bsky.social becomes its own art from! #ultramarathon #spinerace
- Reposted by David Adger🆕 POLLING New YouGov polling shows 67% of the public want political donations capped at £50k or less. The public has spoken loud and clear – it's time to get big money out of UK politics. Read more ⤵️ transparency.org.uk/news/latest-yougov-…
- If I retire early it will be so I don't have to engage any more with the frustrating horror of corporate microsoft systems, from word, to outlook, to the abyss of despair that is sharepoint. Either that, or I open a university where everyone has to use LaTeX (you can tell I'm doing grading!)
- Reposted by David AdgerDictionary of the Oldest Written Language–It Took 90 Years to Complete, and It’s Now Free Online www.openculture.com/2026/01/dict... #books #literature #language
- Reposted by David AdgerThis report in Nature on the costs of competing for & administering scientific grants is shocking: "In other words, European taxpayers will have spent more on the funding process than on the funding itself, and the scientific ecosystem has been drained." www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
- Reposted by David AdgerClosing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵 Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
- "... and let me call This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this Both the year's, and the day's deep midnight is." www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44122/...
- Reposted by David AdgerA “Reform vs Not Reform” strategy is only going to work for Labour if they are seen as credibly “not Reform” by LD/Green curious voters. Every hardline intervention on immigration weakens that credibility but without persuading Reform curious voters.
- Reposted by David AdgerJob alert! 3 tenured research positions at CNRS, France with one preferably in philosophy of language Get in touch with a lab for more information #linguistics www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORF...
- HESA put the academic staff numbers in 23-24 in Essex at 1560, and given voluntary severence schemes it's likely to be lower now, so this is at least 2/3rds of all academic staff in Essex receiving risk of redundancy letters.
- Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252: Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email. Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
- Reposted by David AdgerToday, the Academy publishes a report setting out findings from our Where We Live Next programme on place-led approaches to environmental sustainability. www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...
- Reposted by David AdgerAnd yet the BBC has blocked its journalists from even reporting that @rutgerbregman.com made this same, spectacularly self-evident, statement of fact in his Reith Lecture.
- Reposted by David Adgermy great-grandparents arrived in the UK in the 1890s with nothing. they sold pickles from the front room window, took in laundry, worked as tailors. their children were nurses, teachers, salesmen. their grandchildren were professors, designers, opticians, doctors, magistrates, entrepreneurs.
- Reposted by David AdgerNew paper just published with @evelinaleivada.bsky.social @garymarcus.bsky.social, Vittoria Dentella, Raquel Montero and Fritz Günther Fundamental Principles of Linguistic Structure Are Not Represented by ChatGPT bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bi...
- Such a surprise! www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
- Reposted by David AdgerHoly shit. Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
- Reposted by David Adger[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by David AdgerGreat culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
- word
- This isn't a snapshot of Doogie doing a dynamic stretch. It's a static pose. He literally sleeps like that. #caturday #thedoogster
- Reposted by David AdgerArchaeologist uncovers Ireland’s first known wildcat from 5,500 years ago 🌍 www.westernpeople.ie/archaeologis...
- Reposted by David AdgerWelcome Shabana Mahmood to your next four years of headlines!!!
- Reposted by David Adger‘More than ever before, we need British diplomats, spies and soldiers to speak the language of our adversaries.’ Stark piece from a former diplomat on how loss of language learning hits our defence & geopolitical capabilities www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/proc... @timeshighered.bsky.social
- Reposted by David Adgerpetition.parliament.uk/petitions/74... Please sign and share EVERYWHERE 🙏
- Reposted by David AdgerNet migration fell sharply agaim to 204,000 in the year to June 2025, having been 344k in 2024 and 848k in 2023. But falling immigration has been the biggest secret - and it is time for the media and political debate to catch up with this change www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...
- I'm not usually a fan of THES, but this piece is spot on. @britishacademy.bsky.social has been making this argument for a long time, but the government seems uninterested in the loss of languages in UKHE www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/proc...
- @ans.bsky.social's running the Spine (268 miles up the Pennine Way in January!) and raising money for Oracle Head and Neck Cancer. If you can chuck in a bob or two to support, that would be marvelous! www.justgiving.com/page/anson-m...
- Reposted by David AdgerHappy World Linguistics Day! Celebratory days take off when groups of people decide to make them happen so... let's see how many different locations we can get world linguistics day wishes from this year!
- Reposted by David Adger‘Get someone from Linguistics down here!’ Happy World Linguistics Day!
- Reposted by David AdgerAt last! Open Access version of the book on MIT's site. One for the syntax nerds. I argue we need to replace Merge, that there are no Phases, and that we need to rethink the basic theoretical typology of Islands. Feel free to download with abandon! 🐦🐦 #syntax direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
- Reposted by David AdgerI wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
