Michael Pleyer
@symbolicstorage.bsky.social
nerd. cognitive/evolutionary linguist. Assistant Prof at Center for Language Evolution Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland
(he/him)
www.michaelpleyer.com
@[email protected]
@symbolicstorage
(he/him)
www.michaelpleyer.com
@[email protected]
@symbolicstorage
(3) language is not static, it is dynamic. In fact, many of its design features emerge out of a cultural process of transmission and interaction. Central to language is our capacity for ostension/inference, the human capacity to turn basically anything into a communicative act (7)
November 25, 2025 at 7:49 PM
(3) language is not static, it is dynamic. In fact, many of its design features emerge out of a cultural process of transmission and interaction. Central to language is our capacity for ostension/inference, the human capacity to turn basically anything into a communicative act (7)
(1) language is profoundly multimodal. Spoken language, e.g., is tightly integrated with gesture and other body movements. Language also exhibits modality flexibility, it can be spoken, or signed, or based on touch, such as in Protactile. It also features a lot of iconicity (5)
November 25, 2025 at 7:49 PM
(1) language is profoundly multimodal. Spoken language, e.g., is tightly integrated with gesture and other body movements. Language also exhibits modality flexibility, it can be spoken, or signed, or based on touch, such as in Protactile. It also features a lot of iconicity (5)
In a famous 1960 publication (and a number of others) Charles Hockett described 13 "design features of language", which taken together differentiate language from animal communication systems (and other systems like music). His design features approach was hugely influential (1)
November 25, 2025 at 7:49 PM
In a famous 1960 publication (and a number of others) Charles Hockett described 13 "design features of language", which taken together differentiate language from animal communication systems (and other systems like music). His design features approach was hugely influential (1)
🚨NEW PUBLICATION ALERT!🚨
The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social)
Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics
Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social)
Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics
Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
November 25, 2025 at 7:49 PM
🚨NEW PUBLICATION ALERT!🚨
The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social)
Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics
Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social)
Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics
Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
The deadline for Evolang 2026, the International Conference on the Evolution of Language, has been extended to November 3rd.
Do consider submitting, it's my favourite conference and will take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the age-old "city of the seven hills"! #language #linguistics
Do consider submitting, it's my favourite conference and will take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the age-old "city of the seven hills"! #language #linguistics
October 28, 2025 at 7:07 PM
The deadline for Evolang 2026, the International Conference on the Evolution of Language, has been extended to November 3rd.
Do consider submitting, it's my favourite conference and will take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the age-old "city of the seven hills"! #language #linguistics
Do consider submitting, it's my favourite conference and will take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the age-old "city of the seven hills"! #language #linguistics
Kenny probably wins the prize for funniest sentence (about something that has actually happened) illustrating that the compositional nature of #language enables us to say things never uttered before
youtube.com/shorts/l6uFO...
youtube.com/shorts/l6uFO...
September 25, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Kenny probably wins the prize for funniest sentence (about something that has actually happened) illustrating that the compositional nature of #language enables us to say things never uttered before
youtube.com/shorts/l6uFO...
youtube.com/shorts/l6uFO...
Super cool workshop on "Artificial Languages in the Linguist's Toolbox" at FU Berlin. 2nd talk is by @kennysmithed.bsky.social on "the relationship between frequency and irregularity in language change: an experimental approach using iterated artificial language learning"
September 25, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Super cool workshop on "Artificial Languages in the Linguist's Toolbox" at FU Berlin. 2nd talk is by @kennysmithed.bsky.social on "the relationship between frequency and irregularity in language change: an experimental approach using iterated artificial language learning"
The Poznań #Linguistics Meeting 2025 Grand Debate: "Human #Language: is it unique?" feat. Wolfgang Dressler, Magdalena Wrembel, Raymond Hickey, Nikki Ritt, @thematzing.bsky.social and @neilcohn.bsky.social
September 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
The Poznań #Linguistics Meeting 2025 Grand Debate: "Human #Language: is it unique?" feat. Wolfgang Dressler, Magdalena Wrembel, Raymond Hickey, Nikki Ritt, @thematzing.bsky.social and @neilcohn.bsky.social
Great plenary by @neilcohn.bsky.social at the 2025 Poznań #Linguistics Meeting: "Reimagining linguistic uniqueness in a multimodal paradigm"
September 22, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Great plenary by @neilcohn.bsky.social at the 2025 Poznań #Linguistics Meeting: "Reimagining linguistic uniqueness in a multimodal paradigm"
🚨 New Publication Alert! 🚨
Out now in Language and Linguistics Compass with @stefanhartmann.bsky.social & Antonio Benítez-Burraco:
"The role of play in language structure, acquisition and evolution"
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ln…
Out now in Language and Linguistics Compass with @stefanhartmann.bsky.social & Antonio Benítez-Burraco:
"The role of play in language structure, acquisition and evolution"
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ln…
September 11, 2025 at 10:09 AM
🚨 New Publication Alert! 🚨
Out now in Language and Linguistics Compass with @stefanhartmann.bsky.social & Antonio Benítez-Burraco:
"The role of play in language structure, acquisition and evolution"
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ln…
Out now in Language and Linguistics Compass with @stefanhartmann.bsky.social & Antonio Benítez-Burraco:
"The role of play in language structure, acquisition and evolution"
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ln…
Congratulations to Alexandra Bosshard for winning the #SLE2025 award for best presentation by a post-doctoral researcher with her excellent talk on processing perspectives in animal compositionality!
August 29, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Congratulations to Alexandra Bosshard for winning the #SLE2025 award for best presentation by a post-doctoral researcher with her excellent talk on processing perspectives in animal compositionality!
Petar's take home messages after showing that data driven linguistic behavioural profile models (that require A LOT of annotation) perform better than LLMs in predicting Polish aspect. Linguistics contributes meaningful knowledge but what LLMs is impressive.
August 28, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Petar's take home messages after showing that data driven linguistic behavioural profile models (that require A LOT of annotation) perform better than LLMs in predicting Polish aspect. Linguistics contributes meaningful knowledge but what LLMs is impressive.
#SLE2025 plenary by @dagmardivjak.bsky.social & Petar Milin: Top-down wisdom versus bottom-up noise: can data (ever) replace linguistic expertise? Dagmar contrasts two ways of knowing language, in linguistics & machine learning. LLMs successfully generate & respond to text w/o linguistic insights
August 28, 2025 at 8:34 AM
#SLE2025 plenary by @dagmardivjak.bsky.social & Petar Milin: Top-down wisdom versus bottom-up noise: can data (ever) replace linguistic expertise? Dagmar contrasts two ways of knowing language, in linguistics & machine learning. LLMs successfully generate & respond to text w/o linguistic insights
Roundtable discussion at #SLE2025 "How to do #linguistics with #AI, How to do #AI with #linguistics" with
@emilymbender.bsky.social , Claire Larsonneur, Benoît Le Blanc & Christian Ludwig
@emilymbender.bsky.social , Claire Larsonneur, Benoît Le Blanc & Christian Ludwig
August 27, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Roundtable discussion at #SLE2025 "How to do #linguistics with #AI, How to do #AI with #linguistics" with
@emilymbender.bsky.social , Claire Larsonneur, Benoît Le Blanc & Christian Ludwig
@emilymbender.bsky.social , Claire Larsonneur, Benoît Le Blanc & Christian Ludwig
The last #SLE2025 talk of the workshop before the general discussion is by Auriane Le Floch, presented by @tozbu.bsky.social, on rule-based sequences in sooty mangabey vocal communication
August 27, 2025 at 9:39 AM
The last #SLE2025 talk of the workshop before the general discussion is by Auriane Le Floch, presented by @tozbu.bsky.social, on rule-based sequences in sooty mangabey vocal communication
The next talk in the #SLE2025 workshop "From #Linguistics to animal communication and back" is by @tozbu.bsky.social on vocal combinations in chimpanzees and relating it to bigger questions regarding the evolution of complex combinatorial communication
August 27, 2025 at 7:58 AM
The next talk in the #SLE2025 workshop "From #Linguistics to animal communication and back" is by @tozbu.bsky.social on vocal combinations in chimpanzees and relating it to bigger questions regarding the evolution of complex combinatorial communication
The last talk on Day 1 of the Animal Communication workshop is by Maxine Guttmann: Investigating zebra finch responses to simulated vocal interactions in a virtual reality system.
August 26, 2025 at 4:13 PM
The last talk on Day 1 of the Animal Communication workshop is by Maxine Guttmann: Investigating zebra finch responses to simulated vocal interactions in a virtual reality system.
This is followed by Dina Lipkind talking about learning new sounds: understanding and overcoming phonological interference in songbirds and humans. And then Alexandra Bosshard talking about temporal dynamics of common marmoset call sequences - really cool work!
August 26, 2025 at 3:52 PM
This is followed by Dina Lipkind talking about learning new sounds: understanding and overcoming phonological interference in songbirds and humans. And then Alexandra Bosshard talking about temporal dynamics of common marmoset call sequences - really cool work!
Ambre Salis talks about SPANTICS: Sparrow Semantics. House sparrows are super social so they must coordinate and exchange fined tuned information, but we currently don't know how! They don't have large repertoires and don't use combinations so maybe different features? Investigations ongoin!
August 26, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Ambre Salis talks about SPANTICS: Sparrow Semantics. House sparrows are super social so they must coordinate and exchange fined tuned information, but we currently don't know how! They don't have large repertoires and don't use combinations so maybe different features? Investigations ongoin!
This overview represents a starting point of "evolutionary animal linguistics" investigating the presence of these 3 interpretative systems in humans and other animals and how ancestral these systems are, to what degree features are explained by convergent evolution and others.
August 26, 2025 at 12:57 PM
This overview represents a starting point of "evolutionary animal linguistics" investigating the presence of these 3 interpretative systems in humans and other animals and how ancestral these systems are, to what degree features are explained by convergent evolution and others.
The workshop is introduced by Phillipe Schlenker, who talks about three semantic systems in nature: compositional semantics, iconic semantic and featural semantics. "Trivial" compositionality can be shown in non-human animals, but compositionality proper is much more difficult to show.
August 26, 2025 at 12:45 PM
The workshop is introduced by Phillipe Schlenker, who talks about three semantic systems in nature: compositional semantics, iconic semantic and featural semantics. "Trivial" compositionality can be shown in non-human animals, but compositionality proper is much more difficult to show.
A classic example of the problems with google translate when it uses English as an intermediate, pivot language to translate from one language into another.
Polish "nijaki" means (grammatically) "neuter" (or featureless, nondescript) not "kastrieren" (to castrate) #language #linguistics
Polish "nijaki" means (grammatically) "neuter" (or featureless, nondescript) not "kastrieren" (to castrate) #language #linguistics
August 21, 2025 at 10:39 AM
A classic example of the problems with google translate when it uses English as an intermediate, pivot language to translate from one language into another.
Polish "nijaki" means (grammatically) "neuter" (or featureless, nondescript) not "kastrieren" (to castrate) #language #linguistics
Polish "nijaki" means (grammatically) "neuter" (or featureless, nondescript) not "kastrieren" (to castrate) #language #linguistics
🚨JOB ALERT! 🚨
The Department of Anthropology, Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wrocław, Poland is looking for a Postdoc in the project "The human white sclera: the role of colouration and contrast in perceiving the eyes of others."
Please Share!
The Department of Anthropology, Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wrocław, Poland is looking for a Postdoc in the project "The human white sclera: the role of colouration and contrast in perceiving the eyes of others."
Please Share!
August 13, 2025 at 8:54 AM
🚨JOB ALERT! 🚨
The Department of Anthropology, Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wrocław, Poland is looking for a Postdoc in the project "The human white sclera: the role of colouration and contrast in perceiving the eyes of others."
Please Share!
The Department of Anthropology, Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wrocław, Poland is looking for a Postdoc in the project "The human white sclera: the role of colouration and contrast in perceiving the eyes of others."
Please Share!
me too, predatory journal, me too...
July 25, 2025 at 9:03 AM
me too, predatory journal, me too...