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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 7d

Omg 😂

Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 7d

So lucky that I just noticed a typo in my feedback while grading a student's master dissertation on Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in Chinese learners of English. I was about to compliment them on identifying '...an important gap in the WTF literature'. 😂

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 8d

It should not have to be said, but actually thanks @johnbasil.bsky.social for including signed languages in this article!

John Mansfield @johnbasil.bsky.social · 9d

Social functions of language may drive faster change and faster diversification in some features.
Thanks to growing diversity in variationst sociolinguistics, I gathered studies of 63 languages from 28 families. Here I sketch some potential patterns
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Linguistic Diversification and Rates of Change: Insights From a Diverse Sample of Sociolinguistic Studies

Language diversification and change can be studied using phylogenetic modelling of families over thousands of years, or by close observation of changes unfolding over a few decades at the community l....

compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Jan 27

On a happier note, new paper alert! Recently revised a piece with collaborators @chirila.bsky.social, Sunny Ananthanarayan, and Sophie Pierson on the digital infrastructure for language documentation. Accepted pending revisions at Language. MS: blogs.ed.ac.uk/amaliaskilto...

blogs.ed.ac.uk

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 12d

I spent the International Day of Sign Languages using Auslan (the majority sign language of Australia) at the inaugural Auslan Teachers Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Calle Börstell @cborstell.bsky.social · 15d

It's the #InternationalDayOfSignLanguages!

The GIF below shows a commonly used international sign for 'sign language'. But is there only a single, universal sign language? Of course not, there are many!

#Linguistics

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 12d

Happy #EuropeanDayOfLanguages: I have English as my L1, and I also sign British Sign Language, speak conversational French, and wish to learn more Maltese (my father's first language).

Philipp Krämer @phkraemer.bsky.social · 12d

Since today is the #EuropeanDayOfLanguages, let's not forget that you are not required to keep your languages separate, pure, intact or in any way feel inadequate about your way of using your own language/s.
And don't let anyone take away your co-ownership of the languages you have.

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Marah Jaraisy @marahjaraisy.bsky.social · 12d

Very excited to announce that yesterday I submitted my PhD thesis: The Linguistic Life of the Kufr Qassem Deaf Community: Language Emergence, Variation, Change, and Persistence.

I dedicate this thesis to my people: the resilient Palestinian people

THE LINGUISTIC LIFE OF THE KUFR QASSEM DEAF COMMUNITY LANGUAGE EMERGENCE, VARIATION, CHANGE, AND PERSISTENCE by MARAH JARAISI A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Supervised by Professor Adam Schembri and Dr. Marcus Perlman Department of Linguistics and Communication School of English, Drama, and Creative Studies College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham September 2025

Dedication This thesis is dedicated to the resilient Palestinian people.

(poem) Because I am not like match sticks, I light up once… and die. but I am like the fires of the Magi: I burn… from my cradle to my grave and from my predecessors to my descendants. Long as the horizon is my breath, and I have mastered the craft of ants, gently for history is written the way we dictate

By - Tawfiq Ziad -

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Calle Börstell @cborstell.bsky.social · 21d

🚨 Open PhD position in sign language #linguistics 🚨

The focus should be on the structure of signed languages, or connect to other research profiles at the department (e.g. computational linguistics, acquisition, typology, multilingualism)

su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Deadline: 15 October 2025

PhD student in Linguistics, sign language

The Department of Linguistics at Stockholm University conducts research and offers education in a number of areas such as child language development, computational linguistics, general linguistics, ph

su.varbi.com

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Bodo Winter @bodowinter.bsky.social · 23d

Was fun working on this paper on negation in BSL led by Gab Hodge and w/ Kearsy Cormier and @adamcschembri.bsky.social!

Paper is open access and available here:

doi.org/10.1515/opli...

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Jonathan Kasstan @jrkasstan.bsky.social · 24d

September issue of @jslx.bsky.social is out with some very touching contributions @lhlew.bsky.social @betsysneller.bsky.social #linguistics

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Diane Lillo-Martin @dclm.bsky.social · Aug 19

Want to know more about the Family ASL project? Check out our new paper “Language and Cognitive Development in Bimodal Bilingual Deaf Children in Hearing Families: Three Case Studies.” It’s part of a special issue on Lang & Cog Dev in Deaf Children www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15...

www.mdpi.com

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Adele Goldberg @adelegoldberg.bsky.social · Aug 24

UPDATE: Abstract deadline: Nov 1, 25! Invited speakers: Corrine Occhino, Dagmar Divjak, Idan Blank, Randy Allen Harris, Gary Lupyan, Laura Michaelis, Kanishka Misra !
@dagmardivjak.bsky.social @randyallenharris.bsky.social @congramqueen.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social @kanishka.bsky.social

Adele Goldberg @adelegoldberg.bsky.social · Aug 15

📌 👉 The 14th International Construction Grammar conference will be held at Princeton, June 4-7, 2026

Usage-based analyses and Empirical methods

Stay tuned for updates!

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Felicia Bisnath @fbisnath.bsky.social · 26d

Our paper is finally out online! Find it here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

#linguistics

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 27d

#linguistics

Plushy Socks,-> MFF BAYBEEEEE ✡️ @rainbowsockscat.bsky.social · 27d

New linguistics meme dropped

Labubu with a Labubu and Lakiki with a spiky Labubu

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 28d

I call them language change deniers.

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 28d

Yep. All linguists know this. 🙂 We just do not agree precisely how this happens.

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 28d

A preprint version of our paper "Deconstructing notions of morphological
‘complexity’: Lessons from creoles and sign languages" is here: it's soon to appear in print in the Journal of Linguistics.
drive.google.com/file/d/1BEfZ...

drive.google.com

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 28d

You should come along to an Evolang conference - it's eye opening to see how much linguists in different subfields don't talk to each other enough!

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Lauren Hall-Lew @lhlew.bsky.social · 28d

I find it endlessly frustrating that one of the biggest empirical findings from sociolinguistics is consistently ignored. Change doesn't come from children making mistakes. Change comes from adolescents incrementing existing probabilistic patterns.

I haven't read this paper but hopefully it's good.

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics @mpi-nl.bsky.social · 29d

Children are not the main agents of language change. New paper by @limorraviv.bsky.social @damianblasi.bsky.social & @vkempe.bsky.social.
psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/...
www.mpi.nl/publications...

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 28d

Sociolinguists everywhere

a woman says i 'm standing right here in front of a sign that says schitts creek

ALT: a woman says i 'm standing right here in front of a sign that says schitts creek

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

ZhSigma@332ppm≅Σx,x∈S={💚🇪🇺λP(θ|y)⁂⧖⏚} learn-languages-world-life @stphrolland.bsky.social · 28d

I love this idea: Phrase-Lemma as a construct-for-building-words just like morphèmes-combination

Video: Linguists just made a breakthrough in defining a 'word. ' No, really
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfnA...

Paper: www.lsadc.org/Files/Langua...

#linguistics

Linguists just made a breakthrough in defining a 'word. ' No, really

YouTube video by languagejones

www.youtube.com

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 28d

Can't wait!

evolangconf.bsky.social @evolangconf.bsky.social · Aug 7

Call for papers for Evolang 2026 is now posted! evolang2026.org. Workshop proposals due Sept 22nd. Paper submissions October 26th. Evolang is interdisciplinarity at its best. We hope to see you in Plovdiv!!

Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 28d

Yes, this is not the fault of @limorraviv.bsky.social or colleagues: I think it's a problem with how communications staff at academic institutions write news stories! I've encountered this problem myself when my research has been reported. You really have to intervene to make it more accurate.

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Reposted by Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri)

Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 28d

British Academy looking at the emergence of 'cold spots' where you can't study #arts, #humanities or social science subjects close to home. Call for an urgent review of HE funding and monitoring of at risk subjects.
--- Hetan Shah
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/univers...

University course closures leave students unable to study many SHAPE subjects close to home - report

A new report shows that students are shut out of SHAPE education in their home regions, as large swathes of the UK are ‘cold spots’ for humanities, social sciences and arts degrees.

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk

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Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 28d

Sometimes it depresses me how little impact decades of the study of sociolinguistic variation and change has had on other areas of the language sciences (I get the same feeling about gesture studies), but I didn't even realise that this idea was prevalent in some areas of my own field!

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics @mpi-nl.bsky.social · 29d

For decades, linguists assumed kids drive language change through ‘imperfect’ learning. New research by Raviv, Blasi & Kempe (Psychological Review) show that instead, adolescents and young adults are more likely to spread, normalize, and cement linguistic shifts. www.mpi.nl/news/young-c...

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