Andrew Smith
@andrewdmsmith.bsky.social
Linguist at Stirling University. Cànanaiche. Cognitive linguistics, language evolution, grammaticalisation, metaphor, Gàidhlig, languages, Scottish and UK politics, football (Burnley/ East Stirlingshire/ groundhopping), music, maps, cats, other stuff.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
🚨NEW PUBLICATION ALERT!🚨
The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social)
Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics
Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social)
Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics
Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
November 25, 2025 at 7:49 PM
🚨NEW PUBLICATION ALERT!🚨
The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social)
Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics
Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social)
Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics
Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Coming soon - Turner & Hoffmann on Creative Construction Grammar. In this, we argue that the domain-general process of Conceptual Blending is the cognitive operation that combines constructions. BTW this will be published open access!
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
November 17, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Coming soon - Turner & Hoffmann on Creative Construction Grammar. In this, we argue that the domain-general process of Conceptual Blending is the cognitive operation that combines constructions. BTW this will be published open access!
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Interacting agents can create shared communication systems without ever knowing if signals are successfully received. The conventionalisation process involves a curious interaction between joint attention and individual behavioural differences. doi.org/10.1371/jour.... Work with Casimir Fisch.
Exploiting individual differences to bootstrap communication
Author summary A fundamental question in the field of language evolution is how a communication system can emerge in a population that is initially unable to communicate. One theory is that human comm...
doi.org
November 12, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Interacting agents can create shared communication systems without ever knowing if signals are successfully received. The conventionalisation process involves a curious interaction between joint attention and individual behavioural differences. doi.org/10.1371/jour.... Work with Casimir Fisch.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
"A compelling and thought-provoking analysis of human sociality and the origins of language."
The Interaction Engine by Stephen C. Levinson (@mpi-nl.bsky.social), Out Now & #OpenAccess
https://cup.org/4nusznG
#OA #Linguistics #LangSky 🐦🐦
The Interaction Engine by Stephen C. Levinson (@mpi-nl.bsky.social), Out Now & #OpenAccess
https://cup.org/4nusznG
#OA #Linguistics #LangSky 🐦🐦
October 1, 2025 at 9:05 PM
"A compelling and thought-provoking analysis of human sociality and the origins of language."
The Interaction Engine by Stephen C. Levinson (@mpi-nl.bsky.social), Out Now & #OpenAccess
https://cup.org/4nusznG
#OA #Linguistics #LangSky 🐦🐦
The Interaction Engine by Stephen C. Levinson (@mpi-nl.bsky.social), Out Now & #OpenAccess
https://cup.org/4nusznG
#OA #Linguistics #LangSky 🐦🐦
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Hang it in the Louvre
July 20, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Hang it in the Louvre
Reposted by Andrew Smith
The data is actually part of my forthcoming book, ”Exploring Meaning in Surveillance
Discourses through Corpora“ - available to pre-order now (with a discount code 😉 😇), and coming out in March 2026 (so stay tuned ☺️)
#cl2025 @cl2025.co.uk @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social
Discourses through Corpora“ - available to pre-order now (with a discount code 😉 😇), and coming out in March 2026 (so stay tuned ☺️)
#cl2025 @cl2025.co.uk @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social
July 2, 2025 at 1:38 PM
The data is actually part of my forthcoming book, ”Exploring Meaning in Surveillance
Discourses through Corpora“ - available to pre-order now (with a discount code 😉 😇), and coming out in March 2026 (so stay tuned ☺️)
#cl2025 @cl2025.co.uk @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social
Discourses through Corpora“ - available to pre-order now (with a discount code 😉 😇), and coming out in March 2026 (so stay tuned ☺️)
#cl2025 @cl2025.co.uk @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Interested in Balkan languages? The definitive reference work has arrived – on 1000 pages, in open access. www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...
June 30, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Interested in Balkan languages? The definitive reference work has arrived – on 1000 pages, in open access. www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
A Decade of Lingwiki: An informal history
2025 marks ten years of lingwik. I like round numbers, documenting informal histories and lingwiki, and so I wanted to celebrate this anniversary by sharing the parts of the lingwiki story I am familiar with.
www.superlinguo.com/post/7870922...
2025 marks ten years of lingwik. I like round numbers, documenting informal histories and lingwiki, and so I wanted to celebrate this anniversary by sharing the parts of the lingwiki story I am familiar with.
www.superlinguo.com/post/7870922...
A Decade of Lingwiki: An informal history
Lingwiki...
A Decade of Lingwiki: An informal history
Lingwiki is the name used for an informal network of people and events with the aim of improving the representation of linguistics on Wikipedia. Whether it’...
www.superlinguo.com
June 30, 2025 at 7:38 AM
A Decade of Lingwiki: An informal history
2025 marks ten years of lingwik. I like round numbers, documenting informal histories and lingwiki, and so I wanted to celebrate this anniversary by sharing the parts of the lingwiki story I am familiar with.
www.superlinguo.com/post/7870922...
2025 marks ten years of lingwik. I like round numbers, documenting informal histories and lingwiki, and so I wanted to celebrate this anniversary by sharing the parts of the lingwiki story I am familiar with.
www.superlinguo.com/post/7870922...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Children are incredible language learning machines. But how do they do it? Our latest paper, just published in TICS, synthesizes decades of evidence to propose four components that must be built into any theory of how children learn language. 1/
www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @mpi-nl.bsky.social
www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @mpi-nl.bsky.social
Constructing language: a framework for explaining acquisition
Explaining how children build a language system is a central goal of research in language
acquisition, with broad implications for language evolution, adult language processing,
and artificial intelli...
www.cell.com
June 27, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Children are incredible language learning machines. But how do they do it? Our latest paper, just published in TICS, synthesizes decades of evidence to propose four components that must be built into any theory of how children learn language. 1/
www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @mpi-nl.bsky.social
www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @mpi-nl.bsky.social
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Some years ago, I started to notice the phrase 'going forward' in the sense 'in the future, from now on'. When @tanjasaily.fi and Turo Vartiainen organised a workshop on constructional creativity and innovation and asked me to join, I decided to take a closer look. Here is the result:
Going forward as an adverb | English Language & Linguistics | Cambridge Core
Going forward as an adverb
doi.org
June 24, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Some years ago, I started to notice the phrase 'going forward' in the sense 'in the future, from now on'. When @tanjasaily.fi and Turo Vartiainen organised a workshop on constructional creativity and innovation and asked me to join, I decided to take a closer look. Here is the result:
Wow!
Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵
First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.
First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.
May 29, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Wow!
Reposted by Andrew Smith
I will forever be haunted by this footage.
Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity.
What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives.
🌎🦑🧪
Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity.
What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives.
🌎🦑🧪
May 9, 2025 at 9:32 PM
I will forever be haunted by this footage.
Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity.
What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives.
🌎🦑🧪
Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity.
What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives.
🌎🦑🧪
Reposted by Andrew Smith
🔴 Remember Aria, the “moonshot" research agency dreamed up by Dominic Cummings?
It's funded by £800m in public money but exempt from FOI laws
We decided to fight for transparency... and we won 🎉
New on Democracy for Sale w/ @lucasamin.bsky.social
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/dominic-cu...
It's funded by £800m in public money but exempt from FOI laws
We decided to fight for transparency... and we won 🎉
New on Democracy for Sale w/ @lucasamin.bsky.social
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/dominic-cu...
Democracy for Sale 1, Dominic Cummings 0
We fought to expose the £800m research agency that Cummings built to escape scrutiny - and we won.
democracyforsale.substack.com
April 24, 2025 at 9:52 AM
🔴 Remember Aria, the “moonshot" research agency dreamed up by Dominic Cummings?
It's funded by £800m in public money but exempt from FOI laws
We decided to fight for transparency... and we won 🎉
New on Democracy for Sale w/ @lucasamin.bsky.social
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/dominic-cu...
It's funded by £800m in public money but exempt from FOI laws
We decided to fight for transparency... and we won 🎉
New on Democracy for Sale w/ @lucasamin.bsky.social
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/dominic-cu...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
"Words acquire new meanings by creative processes of semantic extension. We studied this experimentally: participants conventionalise novel labels with a partner, then extend labels to convey new meanings. Salient shared associations facilitated figurative semantic extensions."
See link below!
See link below!
April 22, 2025 at 2:28 PM
"Words acquire new meanings by creative processes of semantic extension. We studied this experimentally: participants conventionalise novel labels with a partner, then extend labels to convey new meanings. Salient shared associations facilitated figurative semantic extensions."
See link below!
See link below!
New article in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social
with @kennysmithed.bsky.social and Josie Bowerman.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
with @kennysmithed.bsky.social and Josie Bowerman.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Semantic extension in a novel communication system is facilitated by salient shared associations
Creative processes of semantic extension play a key role in language change, grammaticalisation, and (by hypothesis) the early origins and evolution o…
www.sciencedirect.com
April 18, 2025 at 12:22 PM
New article in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social
with @kennysmithed.bsky.social and Josie Bowerman.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
with @kennysmithed.bsky.social and Josie Bowerman.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New paper on metonymic and metaphorical semantic extension in a novel communication system with @kennysmithed.bsky.social and Josie Bowerman out in Cognition.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Kenny Smith (@kennysmithed.bsky.social)
Professor of evolutionary linguistics at Edinburgh. Cyclist, runner, climber, coward.
kennysmithed.bsky.social
April 15, 2025 at 3:04 PM
New paper on metonymic and metaphorical semantic extension in a novel communication system with @kennysmithed.bsky.social and Josie Bowerman out in Cognition.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Reposted by Andrew Smith
You think the arbitrary arrest of political dissenters cannot happen in the UK? It already does. www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...
Quakers condemn police raid on Westminster Meeting House
Police broke into a Quaker Meeting House last night (27 March) and arrested six young people holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza.
www.quaker.org.uk
March 29, 2025 at 7:39 AM
You think the arbitrary arrest of political dissenters cannot happen in the UK? It already does. www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Five years ago today, most historical UK monthly rainfall observations were not available to scientists.
But the 66,000 pieces of paper containing the data had been scanned.
With covid lockdown approaching we saw an opportunity to transcribe the data.
#RainfallRescue began... 🧵
But the 66,000 pieces of paper containing the data had been scanned.
With covid lockdown approaching we saw an opportunity to transcribe the data.
#RainfallRescue began... 🧵
March 26, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Five years ago today, most historical UK monthly rainfall observations were not available to scientists.
But the 66,000 pieces of paper containing the data had been scanned.
With covid lockdown approaching we saw an opportunity to transcribe the data.
#RainfallRescue began... 🧵
But the 66,000 pieces of paper containing the data had been scanned.
With covid lockdown approaching we saw an opportunity to transcribe the data.
#RainfallRescue began... 🧵
Reposted by Andrew Smith
🔴 For *four years* officials refused to release names of all companies linked to Conservative donors and party figures put in the 'VIP' lane for bumper Covid contracts
Now a judge has ordered them to.
Huge win for @jennacorderoy.bsky.social (and DfS)
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/government...
Now a judge has ordered them to.
Huge win for @jennacorderoy.bsky.social (and DfS)
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/government...
Government loses legal battle over Covid ‘VIP Lane’
Exclusive: Judge slams “most unsatisfactory” Cabinet Office and orders release of names of 'VIP' firms to Democracy for Sale reporter - after *four year* wait.
democracyforsale.substack.com
March 22, 2025 at 8:33 AM
🔴 For *four years* officials refused to release names of all companies linked to Conservative donors and party figures put in the 'VIP' lane for bumper Covid contracts
Now a judge has ordered them to.
Huge win for @jennacorderoy.bsky.social (and DfS)
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/government...
Now a judge has ordered them to.
Huge win for @jennacorderoy.bsky.social (and DfS)
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/government...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Unpublished 2011 results rescued from oblivion!⏳ osf.io/preprints/ps.... Effects of systematicity and frequency distribution (uniform, skewed) on artificial language learning. With Barbora Skarabela, @andrewdmsmith.bsky.social and @simonkirby.bsky.social
OSF
osf.io
March 22, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Unpublished 2011 results rescued from oblivion!⏳ osf.io/preprints/ps.... Effects of systematicity and frequency distribution (uniform, skewed) on artificial language learning. With Barbora Skarabela, @andrewdmsmith.bsky.social and @simonkirby.bsky.social
Reposted by Andrew Smith
With yet more going round the houses in council tax - here is the secondary legislation I actually drafted that could reform it tomorrow andywightman.scot/2024/02/scra...
Scrapping the Council Tax is Straightforward - Land Matters
Today, the STUC has published an open letter to Scotland’s political parties urging them to revalue Scotland’s domestic property in order to provide an accurate tax base for the Council Tax which is s...
andywightman.scot
February 12, 2025 at 2:14 PM
With yet more going round the houses in council tax - here is the secondary legislation I actually drafted that could reform it tomorrow andywightman.scot/2024/02/scra...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
My paper with @bodowinter.bsky.social and @jwgrieve.bsky.social was published in the Journal of Linguistic Geography today. 🎉
It’s a tutorial on how to use R & ggplot2 to visualise linguistic map data.
doi.org/10.1017/jlg....
It’s a tutorial on how to use R & ggplot2 to visualise linguistic map data.
doi.org/10.1017/jlg....
Visualizing map data for linguistics using ggplot2: A tutorial with examples from dialectology and typology | Journal of Linguistic Geography | Cambridge Core
Visualizing map data for linguistics using ggplot2: A tutorial with examples from dialectology and typology
doi.org
January 30, 2025 at 12:27 PM
My paper with @bodowinter.bsky.social and @jwgrieve.bsky.social was published in the Journal of Linguistic Geography today. 🎉
It’s a tutorial on how to use R & ggplot2 to visualise linguistic map data.
doi.org/10.1017/jlg....
It’s a tutorial on how to use R & ggplot2 to visualise linguistic map data.
doi.org/10.1017/jlg....
Reposted by Andrew Smith
NEW
How Harry and Watson forced News Group Newspapers to admit wrongdoing
Why the circumstances show it was NGN wanting to avoid a public trial—and not the costs risk on the claimants—that brought this case to its end
By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
How Harry and Watson forced News Group Newspapers to admit wrongdoing
Why the circumstances show it was NGN wanting to avoid a public trial—and not the costs risk on the claimants—that brought this case to its end
By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
January 24, 2025 at 1:44 PM
NEW
How Harry and Watson forced News Group Newspapers to admit wrongdoing
Why the circumstances show it was NGN wanting to avoid a public trial—and not the costs risk on the claimants—that brought this case to its end
By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
How Harry and Watson forced News Group Newspapers to admit wrongdoing
Why the circumstances show it was NGN wanting to avoid a public trial—and not the costs risk on the claimants—that brought this case to its end
By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
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!
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!
January 24, 2025 at 8:00 AM
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!
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!