Mal Shah
@compositiomality.bsky.social
3rd yr Ling PhD @ UMD. Syntax, semantics, psycholing, especially ellipsis, quantifiers, degree constructions, and comparative Indic. On/off runner, TTRPGer, and mixologist. Previously Philosophy & Linguistics BA @ Oxford. he/him, 24
https://malshah.com
https://malshah.com
Type Logical Semantics? Well, yeah, I like to think of myself as a logical type of semanticist
May 28, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Type Logical Semantics? Well, yeah, I like to think of myself as a logical type of semanticist
Reposted by Mal Shah
glad to be done with work and finally have some free time to work
May 25, 2025 at 8:03 PM
glad to be done with work and finally have some free time to work
I had a dream that I attended a lecture about linear logics that made me understand them but I woke up and now I'm back to not understanding
May 22, 2025 at 2:09 PM
I had a dream that I attended a lecture about linear logics that made me understand them but I woke up and now I'm back to not understanding
Is it bad or is it just funny to submit to a syntax conference citing nothing written after 2000
(I swear i'm not *that* out of touch)
(I swear i'm not *that* out of touch)
May 22, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Is it bad or is it just funny to submit to a syntax conference citing nothing written after 2000
(I swear i'm not *that* out of touch)
(I swear i'm not *that* out of touch)
does anyone know anything about the syntax of british english "do you want your car cleaning?"
i have some takes but couldn't find previous literature
i have some takes but couldn't find previous literature
May 20, 2025 at 3:21 PM
does anyone know anything about the syntax of british english "do you want your car cleaning?"
i have some takes but couldn't find previous literature
i have some takes but couldn't find previous literature
Reposted by Mal Shah
The cover of every OUP volume collecting Davidson's papers be like
May 19, 2025 at 7:23 PM
The cover of every OUP volume collecting Davidson's papers be like
Reposted by Mal Shah
decades of cyberpunk fiction, and I don't believe a single writer fully predicted how embarrassingly stupid so much of AI was going to be
May 15, 2025 at 11:22 PM
decades of cyberpunk fiction, and I don't believe a single writer fully predicted how embarrassingly stupid so much of AI was going to be
Reposted by Mal Shah
My new article 'Polysemy and Philosophy' is out in Philosophy Compass. It explores the signicance of polysemy in four strands of discussion in philosophy dx.doi.org/10.1111/phc3...
Polysemy and Philosophy
Polysemy is the linguistic phenomenon where a word has more than one sense. Polysemy is important to philosophy. This article considers four related strands of discussion in philosophy in which polys....
dx.doi.org
May 14, 2025 at 10:16 PM
My new article 'Polysemy and Philosophy' is out in Philosophy Compass. It explores the signicance of polysemy in four strands of discussion in philosophy dx.doi.org/10.1111/phc3...
Reposted by Mal Shah
RIP linguist Haj Ross (1938-2025) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R....
John R. Ross - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
May 14, 2025 at 1:21 PM
RIP linguist Haj Ross (1938-2025) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R....
Reposted by Mal Shah
absence makes the sartre go ponder
May 11, 2025 at 2:56 AM
absence makes the sartre go ponder
Reposted by Mal Shah
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
![the "stop doing math" meme except it says "STOP DRIVING CARS". the meme reads:
* PEOPLE WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ISOLATED IN CAGES
* YEARS OF CONSTRUCTION yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND for building ONE MORE LANE
* Wanted to travel large distances anyway for a laugh? We had a tool for that: It was called "TRAINS"
* "Yes please give me NO GREENERY. Please give me INFINITE PAVEMENT" - Statements dreamed up by the utterly Deranged
LOOK at what Civil Engineers have been demanding your Respect for all this time, with all the concrete and asphalt we built for them
(This is REAL Civil Infrastructure, done by REAL Civil Engineers):
? [Image of the infamously hideous Breezewood truck stop]
?? [Image of a gigantic mega parking lot with thousands of cars]
??? [Image of the infamous I-405 gridlock photo with tens of thousands of cars not moving]
"Hello I would like [Image of a graph of global surface temperatures] climate please"
They have played us for absolute fools](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ywbm3iywnhzep3ckt6efhoh7/bafkreihghfkhhhasmr6sn5mj7uxs53v46wu2cns5saeln64grjp3ltfvpm@jpeg)
May 3, 2025 at 6:54 PM
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Reposted by Mal Shah
This is good advice for readers.
But also, academics, put up a website! Put drafts of papers as submitted on it!
If you don't feel like doing that, at least post drafts to PhilPapers, or SSRN, or arXiv, or somewhere. You're getting paid to provide a public good, not support commercial publishers.
But also, academics, put up a website! Put drafts of papers as submitted on it!
If you don't feel like doing that, at least post drafts to PhilPapers, or SSRN, or arXiv, or somewhere. You're getting paid to provide a public good, not support commercial publishers.
Every now again it’s useful to repeat advice about accessing papers that are behind a paywall that excludes you. Email the author. My estimate is that 90% of academics are so thrilled that a living, breathing, possibly even reading, person shows interest that they will swiftly send you a copy.
May 3, 2025 at 1:48 PM
This is good advice for readers.
But also, academics, put up a website! Put drafts of papers as submitted on it!
If you don't feel like doing that, at least post drafts to PhilPapers, or SSRN, or arXiv, or somewhere. You're getting paid to provide a public good, not support commercial publishers.
But also, academics, put up a website! Put drafts of papers as submitted on it!
If you don't feel like doing that, at least post drafts to PhilPapers, or SSRN, or arXiv, or somewhere. You're getting paid to provide a public good, not support commercial publishers.
Reposted by Mal Shah
joining the linguistic wars on the side of linguistics
May 3, 2025 at 8:34 PM
joining the linguistic wars on the side of linguistics
Reposted by Mal Shah
New bit Eric and I wrote up on superficial versus deep theories, a topic that's become an interest of both of ours. Potentially of particular interest to @quiltydunn.bsky.social @ericman.bsky.social @devinsanchezcurry.com @jplennon630.bsky.social
New blog post (with @jpober.bsky.social) on what makes a theory "superficial" vs "deep", using superficial functionalism and dispositionalism about belief and early Mendelian theories of inheritance as examples. [Link in 1st reply]
May 2, 2025 at 5:25 PM
New bit Eric and I wrote up on superficial versus deep theories, a topic that's become an interest of both of ours. Potentially of particular interest to @quiltydunn.bsky.social @ericman.bsky.social @devinsanchezcurry.com @jplennon630.bsky.social
WCCFL may have left me feeling, for the first time in my life, syntaxed out
April 27, 2025 at 11:18 PM
WCCFL may have left me feeling, for the first time in my life, syntaxed out
chomsky (1995 et seq)
good word, “minimalism”, nobody’s heard this word before, i’m saying “minimalism, minimalism” and people say “what?” they don’t know the word, it’s a good word. it’s a good, it’s an old word, very old, but nobody knows. nobody knows. i say it. i say “minimalism” good word
April 27, 2025 at 8:46 PM
chomsky (1995 et seq)
Wow I got out ahead of the Philosophy Twitter exodus and now everyone I used to know is here :D
April 24, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Wow I got out ahead of the Philosophy Twitter exodus and now everyone I used to know is here :D
Never really jived with BlueSky when I was last on here because it was a bit more LinkedIn-esque, let's say, than the soapboxing-at-the-bar-in-the-middle-of-a-conference vibe Ling Twitter had when it was at its best.
Has that changed over the last year?
Has that changed over the last year?
April 24, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Never really jived with BlueSky when I was last on here because it was a bit more LinkedIn-esque, let's say, than the soapboxing-at-the-bar-in-the-middle-of-a-conference vibe Ling Twitter had when it was at its best.
Has that changed over the last year?
Has that changed over the last year?
Logging in for the first time in a year to say I'll be at WCCFL in Seattle! Come say hi
April 24, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Logging in for the first time in a year to say I'll be at WCCFL in Seattle! Come say hi
Why is overt Ā-movement of a silent operator like overt Ā-movement of a pronounced lexical item, and not like covert Ā-movement of a pronounced lexical item?
It could have been different.
I feel like the answer we give tells us a lot about how to think of PF and the overt/covert distinction.
It could have been different.
I feel like the answer we give tells us a lot about how to think of PF and the overt/covert distinction.
May 25, 2024 at 5:49 PM
Why is overt Ā-movement of a silent operator like overt Ā-movement of a pronounced lexical item, and not like covert Ā-movement of a pronounced lexical item?
It could have been different.
I feel like the answer we give tells us a lot about how to think of PF and the overt/covert distinction.
It could have been different.
I feel like the answer we give tells us a lot about how to think of PF and the overt/covert distinction.
Reposted by Mal Shah
1957 1965 1981 1995
May 23, 2024 at 8:10 PM
1957 1965 1981 1995
Me when an article is printed in a two column format: 😤🤢🤮
Me setting a one column paper to display in spreads: 🥰😍☺️
Me setting a one column paper to display in spreads: 🥰😍☺️
May 9, 2024 at 11:40 AM
Me when an article is printed in a two column format: 😤🤢🤮
Me setting a one column paper to display in spreads: 🥰😍☺️
Me setting a one column paper to display in spreads: 🥰😍☺️
Yes I like antisymmetry I just choose to not be weird about it
April 30, 2024 at 3:02 AM
Yes I like antisymmetry I just choose to not be weird about it
Should I get into writing my name as <Malhār>
April 28, 2024 at 9:31 PM
Should I get into writing my name as <Malhār>
Threw a 3-page speculative note about vehicle change and movement-based binding (à la Lidz & Idsardi 1998; Hornstein 2001, i.a.) onto lingbuzz:
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
Moving Vehicle Violations: Binding via Movement and Vehicle Change effects - lingbuzz/008095
A not-at-all-worked-out proposal/speculation about why vehicle change effects occur. Specifically, if binding phenomena are really the result of PF-rules like 'reflexivize' and 'pronominalize', as has...
ling.auf.net
April 27, 2024 at 3:05 AM
Threw a 3-page speculative note about vehicle change and movement-based binding (à la Lidz & Idsardi 1998; Hornstein 2001, i.a.) onto lingbuzz:
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...