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Interactive repair and the foundations of language
We have a new paper out in which we argue that the robustness and flexibility of human language is underpinned by a machinery of interactive repair. Repair is normally thought of as a kind of remedial...
View ArticleJokes that come in rounds: observations from Sacks
Why do jokes come in rounds, like drinks? And what makes them an interactional safe haven in a group therapy session? These are some of the unlikely questions you encounter if you’re reading Harvey...
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Language between animals and computers
Language is what makes us human: one of those things, perhaps the one thing, that sets us apart. But there is an interesting asymmetry in our willingness to ascribe linguistic capacities to...
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What are the most frequent interjections?
Out now in Annual Review of Linguistics: Interjections at the Heart of Language. This paper presents a take on interjections that departs in significant ways from received views. I would be very happy...
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Fixing “live does not support 8000 as a sample rate” error in Ableton Live...
Randomly clicking around in the ASIO4ALL 2.15 settings in Ableton Live, as one does, I change something (perhaps I hit ‘Restore Default Settings’, but it may also have been something else) and got the...
View ArticleThe inverse grazing goat problem of linguistics
A common trope in recreational mathematics is the grazing goat problem (see this lovely write-up in Quanta). Briefly, there’s a goat tethered to a rope, and the problem is to determine the area it...
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Scholarly blogging, now with DOIs
I have been blogging at The Ideophone since 2007, and not all of it has been as ephemeral as my PhD promotor once feared. My short post documenting the etymology of Zotero is apparently the only...
View ArticleFutures of Language, 2024-2029
I am extremely happy to announce that NWO will be funding the project Futures of Language over the next five years. We will start in September 2024; stay tuned for news about positions for postdocs,...
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Zotero and the reMarkable: some simple hacks
Readers of this blog will know that I’m an avid user of Zotero and of the reMarkable paper tablet. Zotero is a supreme reference manager and reMarkable is simply the best when it comes to reading and...
View ArticleI am a stochastic parrot
Gregory Bateson, in Mind and Nature, writes: To liken the mountain to a man and talk of its “humor” or “rage” does little harm. But to liken the man to the mountain proposes that all human...
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