Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Prof Gerhard @profgerhard.bsky.social · 3h

doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...

Redirecting

doi.org

1 1

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · 6d

New preprint by Katja Bocklage (PhD in our ERC project) and many others from our chair just published online with Humanities Commons.

Testing the Potential of Automatically Inferred Affix Colexifications for Linguistic Typology

works.hcommons.org/records/adjy...

Testing the Potential of Automatically Inferred Affix Colexifications for Linguistic Typology

Cross-linguistic colexification patterns have proven useful for quantitative studies in lexical typology. While most studies focus on full colexification, where senses are co-expressed by the same wor...

works.hcommons.org

2

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Christina Warinner @christinawarinner.bsky.social · 12d

We're so happy to share our newest ancient DNA findings in Mongolia on the Slab Grave expansion and its consequences for diverse Bronze Age pastoralists! doi.org/10.1038/s414...

4 9

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

The Digital Orientalist @digitalorientalist.bsky.social · 13d

#OTD 5 yrs ago: @mzorki.bsky.social shared some thoughts on #regularexpressions, starting from what they are, and how frequently we use them without even realizing it!

#digitallife #digitaltools #regex #tbt

digitalorientalist.com/2020/09/25/s...

Some thoughts on regular expressions

What are regular expressions and why use them? Those who are interested in the digital humanities or corpus linguistics are very likely to come across regular expressions (or in short regex) – a sy…

digitalorientalist.com

1 2 5

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Internet Archive @archive.org · 14d

Big news: Internet Archive Europe ( @internetarchive.eu ) has opened its new HQ in Amsterdam! 🎉 A home for preservation, access & shared cultural heritage.

Read coverage from @mariabustillos.com in Flaming Hydra: flaminghydra.com/freedom-and-...

Freedom and Sharing at the Internet Archive Europe

On Friday, in a narrow, cream-painted 17th-century row house facing a wide canal bathed in golden light, the Internet Archive Europe celebrated the opening of its new headquarters in Amsterdam. Around...

flaminghydra.com

6 140 620

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Malte Rehbein @malterehbein.bsky.social · 16d

che.hypotheses.org/1128

#ecology #dh #anthropocene #humboldt #computationalhumanities #digitalhumanities #history

Exploring the Anthropocene Through the Macroscope: A Joint Venture (On Computational Historical Ecology Part II)

There is no culture without nature, and the reverse is equally true: human culture has always shaped nature. This shaping includes, at its extreme, the widespread abuse, exploitation, and destruction ...

che.hypotheses.org

2 3

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Mark Dingemanse @dingemansemark.bsky.social · Jun 26

quelle surprise that academia dot edu now offers AI slopcasts
they were a garbage flattery service ten years ago, and they have turned up the enshittification a few notches ideophone.org/academia-edu...

How Academia.edu promotes poor metadata and plays to our vanity – The Ideophone

ideophone.org

2 9

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · 21d

New post by our doctoral student Arne Rubehn in our CALCiP journal / blog.

"Integrating Semantic Embeddings into NoRaRe"

calc.hypotheses.org/8783

Integrating Semantic Embeddings into NoRaRe

This study illustrates how semantic embeddings can be added to and retrieved from NoRaRe. By that, it provides a template for handling vector data and makes popular methodology in semantic modeling av...

calc.hypotheses.org

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · 23d

Mein neuer Blogbeitrag im September, via @dehypotheses.bsky.social, geht auf einige interessante Parallelen zwischen der Mathematik und der historischen Linguistik ein.

wub.hypotheses.org/3018

Schon gesehen

Vor Kurzem bin ich auf einen sehr interesssanten Artikel gestoßen, der einen populärwissenschaftlichen Überblück zu den Versuchen in der Mathematik gibt, Beweise automatisiert prüfen zu lassen (Bischo...

wub.hypotheses.org

1

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · Aug 26

Already yesterday, my new post in our #CALC in Practice Blog/Journal appeared, this time

Illustrating Data Curation in NoRaRe with the Help of Templates

calc.hypotheses.org/8723

Illustrating Data Curation in NoRaRe with the Help of Templates

This study introduces a collection of templates that can be used to contribute data to the Database of Norms, Ratings, and Relations (NoRaRe) of words and concepts. The templates are intended to facil...

calc.hypotheses.org

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · Aug 7

Mein Blogbeitrag im August, via @dehypotheses.bsky.social befasst sich mit Ambiguitäten von bestimmten sprachlichen Konstruktionen.

Von subjektiven und objektiven Fällen

wub.hypotheses.org?p=2928

Von subjektiven und objektiven Fällen

Obwohl ich als Linguist eigentlich meist fasziniert bin von grammatischen Konstrukten, kann ich doch gut verstehen, wenn sich dem einen oder der anderen der Magen umdreht, wenn sie sich an die grammat...

wub.hypotheses.org

1

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Wolfgang Behr / 畢鶚 (氒/厥/攸) @behrwolf.bsky.social · Aug 2

2 Ph.D. positions (48m/100% FTE) in the project "Description of the endangered Mönpa language of Bhutan” headed by Tim Bodt at Trinity College Dublin
www.tcd.ie/media/tcd/sl...

www.tcd.ie

12 13

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · Jul 31

Testing the ACL@Vienna coffee cups for their ability to hold objects beyond beverages. #ACL2025

1 3

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Uni Passau Research Magazine @unipassauresearch.bsky.social · Jul 29

Human and a robot are sitting at a kitchen table. The human says, ‘Please pass me the salt.’ The robot does so. Did the machine understand the request? In a public lecture, linguists Professor @lingulist.de and Dr Christian Bentz provide plenty of food for thought.

#KeepCALLM
🧪

Machines with a pinch of common sense?

Does AI understand human language? Linguists Professor Johann-Mattis List and Dr Christian Bentz conduct thought experiments and offer a bleak prognosis.

www.digital.uni-passau.de

4 4

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · Jul 27

Our team's papers at SIGTYP@ACL Vienna are online now.

"Robustness of Concept Translations in the Compilation of Multilingual Wordlists" by Snee et al.
aclanthology.org/2025.sigtyp-...

"Compositional Structures in Numeral Systems Across Languages" by Rubehn et al.
aclanthology.org/2025.sigtyp-...

Unstable Grounds for Beautiful Trees? Testing the Robustness of Concept Translations in the Compilation of Multilingual Wordlists

David Snee, Luca Ciucci, Arne Rubehn, Kellen Parker Van Dam, Johann-Mattis List. Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Research in Computational Linguistic Typology and Multilingual NLP. 2025.

aclanthology.org

5

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · Jul 23

It is official, our two long papers at #ACL2025 have now been published. Common work with Arne Rubehn (Concept Embeddings), and Frederic Blum and @sherbold.bsky.social (Automated Language Affiliation).

aclanthology.org/2025.acl-lon...
aclanthology.org/2025.acl-lon...

Partial Colexifications Improve Concept Embeddings

Arne Rubehn, Johann-Mattis List. Proceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers). 2025.

aclanthology.org

1 4

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · Jul 23

New blog post in our CALCiP journal. Kellen Parker van Dam presents a CLDF version of legacy material on Muishaung, a Sino-Tibetan language.

doi.org/10.15475/cal...

calc.hypotheses.org/8624

Digitizing Legacy Lexical Data of Muishaung for Computer-Assisted Language Comparison

This study describes the process of digitizing legacy materials into a computer-readable format for the purposes of computational typology and computer-assisted historical reconstruction. It presents ...

calc.hypotheses.org

2

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Uni Passau Research Magazine @unipassauresearch.bsky.social · Jul 21

Wie schlägt sich KI gegen professorale Expertise? Die Quiz-Show unter Moderation von @sherbold.bsky.social ist nun in voller Länge online. Wer sich vorab selbst mit der KI messen möchte, kann dies per Online-Quiz tun: www.digital.uni-passau.de/beitraege/20...

#KeepCALLM #5gegenKI

Quizshow 5 gegen KI - Professorenteam tritt gegen KI an

YouTube video by Universität Passau

www.youtube.com

2 2

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · Jul 18

Indeed, a lot of fun, thanks for organizing!

Steffen Herbold @sherbold.bsky.social · Jul 18

That was so much fun. I look forward to the video 😃

Uni Passau Research Magazine @unipassauresearch.bsky.social · Jul 18

Wer kann besser Erbsen zählen - 🤖oder unsere Profs?
Gestern bei uns im Studio: die Quizshow #5gegenKI

Moderator @sherbold.bsky.social hat mit elf Fragen immer wieder für Überraschung gesorgt. Eine Erkenntnis: Auch KI kann faul sein.

Die Show stellen wir in Kürze online. #KeepCALLM #staytuned

1

Johann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · Jul 10

Mein Blogbeitrag im Juli via @dehypotheses.bsky.social geht auf die Grundeinstellung zur Sinnhaftigkeit der eigenen Forschung bei Geistes- und Naturwissenschaften ein und berichtet ein bisschen von meinen eigenen Erfahrungen.

"Von der Einstellung"

wub.hypotheses.org/2895

Von der Einstellung

Von meiner Grundeinstellung her bin ich eigentlich immer ein gut gelaunter Mensch gewesen. Es gibt Tage, an denen ich ein bisschen mies drauf bin, aber meist freue ich mich beim Aufstehen, egal wie fr...

wub.hypotheses.org

1 3

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Jul 7

"The teachers say that AI applications such as chatbots are being 'hyped' and warn that they are merely products of the technology industry, which — like the tobacco and oil industries — is only interested in profit."

www.trouw.nl/duurzaamheid...

Our letter: openletter.earth/open-letter-...

18 45

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · Jun 29

“The goal of academic training is not to solve problems as efficiently and quickly as possible, but to develop skills for identifying and dealing with novel problems, which have never been solved before.”

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · Jun 28

If you agree with our 5 requests to our universities, please sign 🖊️ the open letter and don’t forget to confirm your email! ☺️🙏

openletter.earth/open-letter-...

• Resist the introduction of AI in our own software systems, from Microsoft to OpenAI to Apple. It is not in our interests to let our processes be corrupted and give away our data to be used to train models that are not only useless to us, but also harmful.

• Ban AI use in the classroom for student assignments, in the same way we ban essay mills and other forms of plagiarism. Students must be protected from de-skilling and allowed space and time to perform their assignments themselves.

• Cease normalising the AI hype and the lies which are prevalent in the technology industry's framing of these technologies. The technologies do not have the advertised capacities and their adoption puts students and academics at risk of violating ethical, legal, scholarly, and scientific standards of reliability, sustainability, and safety.

• Fortify our academic freedom as university staff to enforce these principles and standards in our classrooms and our research as well as on the computer systems we are obliged to use as part of our work. We as academics have the right to our own spaces.

• Sustain critical thinking on AI and promote critical engagement with technology on a firm academic footing. Scholarly discussion must be free from the conflicts of interest caused by industry funding, and reasoned resistance must always be an option.

3 55 160

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Annika Tjuka @annikatjuka.bsky.social · Jun 30

Thrilled to share that I was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal 🏅 in recognition of my doctoral research on language diversity!

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way!

www.eva.mpg.de/press/news/a...

2 2 21

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Uni Passau Research Magazine @unipassauresearch.bsky.social · Jun 30

💬 Do #LLMs really understand human language? #ChatGPT says yes, but Professor @lingulist.de is sceptical while Dr Bentz agrees with the language model. Join their public debate:

📅 3 July, 6 pm
📍 Lecture theatre 13

More information: www.digital.uni-passau.de/en/digitalis...

#KeepCALLM

Public lecture - do large language models understand human language?

YouTube video by Universität Passau

youtu.be

3 3

Reposted by Johann-Mattis List

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Jun 27

Hello & HAPPY FRIDAY, as promised an open letter by my lovely colleagues and myself. Everybody, feel free to sign this even if you are not NL-based and ‼️ share ‼️ (anonymous signature is poss):

Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia

openletter.earth/open-letter-...

Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia

13 180 300