Adam An
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adamanlx.bsky.social
Adam An
@adamanlx.bsky.social
400 followers 580 following 530 posts
PhD student in linguistics at the University of Kansas. Morphosyntax, variation, change, revitalization, and a whole lot of food. "Big William & Mary guy." https://theycallmezeal.me [ædəm æn] he/him
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adamanlx.bsky.social
What?
FLOWCHART is evolving!
A flowchart labeled "flowchart 2.0". The first decision is intransitive (SV) or transitive (SVO). Under intransitive (SV) is unaccusative or unergative. Under transitive (SVO) is object ≠ sentence ("normal transitive") or obj. = sentence; under the latter of the two is raising or control. Under each final option in the flowchart lie columns of a table, the rows of which are "voice?" "complement of v..." and "subject comes from..." Under unaccusative, there is no voice, the complement of V is "DP that becomes subject by moving to specifier of TP", and the subject comes from "complement of V / right of V". Under unergative, there is voice, the complement of V is "none 🙂", and the subject comes from "specifier of VoiceP / left of Voice". Under "normal transitive", there is voice, the complement of V is "DP or PP", and the subject comes from "specifier of VoiceP / left of Voice". Under raising, there is no voice, the complement of V is TP, and the subject comes from somewhere in the second sentence. Under control, there is voice, the complement of V is "CP with big PRO as subject", and the subject comes from "specifier of VoiceP / left of VoiceP". Alongside the flowchart are three extra notes: "Subjects and wh-words need to be moved before starting to draw!" "Silent C goes AFTER wh-words in S-structure" "Auxiliaries go above / left of Voice and/or main V; place subj. w/ main verb"
November 21, 2025 at 5:46 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
🍄🍄‍🟫
A colloquy spread with mushroom-themed cookies and cupcakes. A closer look at the mushroom confections. There is a cupcake with red icing with white dots. There is also a chocolate thumbprint cookie with a marshmallow affixed to it.
November 20, 2025 at 9:59 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
This kaya (coconut jam) is the best thing I've ever made for colloquy. Like out of all the things I've made, this is the one I'm making again so I don't have to share.
A snack spread with bread, kaya, and various other snacks.
November 18, 2025 at 10:45 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Non Chinese people are disproportionately amazed by these green beans. Like you know we have better stuff right?
Sichuan gan bian dou jiao
November 15, 2025 at 4:21 AM
adamanlx.bsky.social
I'm dumb transitive should say SVO
The same tree from above but now transitive says SVO
November 14, 2025 at 5:46 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Cooked pretty hard with this one.
A decision tree. The top level decision is intransitive (SV) or transitive (SVO). Under intransitive is unaccusative (do tests) or unergative (do tests). Under transitive is object ≠ sentence or object = sentence; if object = sentence an additional arrow says to return to the top of the tree for the inside sentence. Under object = sentence is raising (do tests) or control (do tests). There are four results. The first is (outer) subject comes from comp. of V, no Voice, which results from unaccusative and raising. The second is (outer) subject comes from spec. of VoiceP, which results from unergative, object ≠ sentence, and control. The third is inside sentence has no CP, which comes from raising. The fourth is inside sentence subject is PRO, which comes from control.
November 14, 2025 at 5:43 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
I presented at #NWAV53! An honor to present work coauthored with Jean Paul Ngoboka.

Materials available at theycallmezeal.me/publications
Me with my poster. It is called "How do we evaluate what we don't know?" Me presenting. The slide reads "What are the surface distributions of these forms?" I am describing "negated ra-" but "negated" is crossed out. Under it is written "most instances are expected and socially unmeaningful / only a few instances are unusual." I am comparing it to "g-" which is "always unusual."
November 11, 2025 at 3:39 AM
adamanlx.bsky.social
I want to throw something into the top one and it comes out the bottom one.
An abstract art piece hanging in a building. It is a 3d sculpture made of purple and white horn-like shapes connected with tubes.
November 8, 2025 at 2:09 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
The session chair held up that 2 minutes left sign and I literally heard Running In The 90s start playing in my head #NWAV53
A frog power sprinting and making plap plap plap noises
November 7, 2025 at 1:33 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Raising or control? More like RAISIN or CEREAL
Raisin Bran
November 4, 2025 at 2:14 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Happy Halloween I am a Philadelphian bottle of Life Water
A bottle of Life Water. The label has greens, blues, purples, and pinks. There is a black cap. Me dressed in greens, blues, purples, and pinks with a black cap on. I'm wearing a label that says "Life Wooder".
November 1, 2025 at 2:44 AM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Happy Halloween I am an AI slop syntax tree
An AI slop syntax tree that is completely incoherent with garbled text. There are puppies wearing ties scattered around the tree for some reason. I'm wearing dog ears, a tie, and garbled constituents from the tree.
October 31, 2025 at 4:20 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Today for Halloween I am the bunny from the head turn experiment
A pink bunny playing the drums Me in a pink shirt with bunny ears and a plastic tub I'm banging on like a drum with a ladle
October 30, 2025 at 4:56 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Today's colloquy spread shouldn't have worked. But it worked.
A colloquy spread with snacks and sangria. A sign indicates that there is tomato bread, which is covered in the photo with a bowl.
October 24, 2025 at 3:09 AM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Today's colloquy spread.

@absp.bsky.social The mystery flavor is nice! It tastes kind of like every citrus fruit simultaneously. Maybe a hint of mango or something floral.
A colloquy snack spread with waffles. Sunflower La Croix.
October 2, 2025 at 10:20 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Oh to be a rabbit playing the drums when a consonant with a different place of articulation plays
A stuffed toy of a rabbit playing the drums. The rabbit is inside a box with a light illuminating it.
September 25, 2025 at 7:24 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Kinyarwanda has an umu- (sg.) ~ aba- (pl.) alternation for human nouns: umu-ntu, aba-ntu 'person, people'

The prefixes are appended to human loans, too: umu-hater.

And what's the plural? IT'S ABA-HATERS BABEYYYYYYYYYYY
Screenshot of Google search results showing use of Kinyarwanda word "abahaters"
September 20, 2025 at 9:04 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
left a TODO in my essay due tonight now i have to open it again and finish it night ruined
person screaming in agony on floor with hands on head
September 20, 2025 at 1:00 AM
adamanlx.bsky.social
The best hieroglyph no question
Three ducks with beaks open and wings outstretched in a nest.
September 2, 2025 at 2:26 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Yeah
A display of food. Falafel are sitting on a platter in front of an air fryer.
August 28, 2025 at 10:34 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
A placard saying "Smorked Beef"
August 15, 2025 at 3:15 PM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Je l'ai trouvé
A pillar that says "Spot the waffle impostor! Can you find the Brussels waffle in between the Liège waffle?" A large graphic demonstrates that a Brussels waffle is square. The rest of the pillar is covered in smaller images of circular Liège waffles. I found the Brussels waffle and I'm pointing to it.
August 3, 2025 at 6:35 AM
adamanlx.bsky.social
The way I just ate this mango is not reflective of my character.
A juicy, cut -up mango ready to be eaten.
July 29, 2025 at 7:33 AM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Screenshot of audio files uploading in progress Cat looking intently in the distance with the caption (heavy breathing)
July 28, 2025 at 7:11 AM
adamanlx.bsky.social
Five consultants, five hours of elicitation, three of them consecutive. I'm spent but my heart is full. 🇷🇼🇷🇼🇷🇼🇷🇼🇷🇼
Me in a classroom looking tired with my hair messed up. Papers are strewn across desks and an audio recorder is in the corner.
July 27, 2025 at 7:39 PM