Maisy Hallam

Happy to share the first version of my textbook "Quantitative Data Analysis for Linguists in R".

stefanocoretta.github.io/qdal/

Comments and suggestions welcome! (on the GitHub repo: github.com/stefanocoret...)

The textbook takes you from 0 to basic stat modelling with Bayesian regression.

Enduring constraints on grammar revealed by Bayesian spatiophylogenetic analyses - Nature Human Behaviour Despite their great diversity, human languages are shaped by recurring grammatical universals. Verkerk et al. show that about one-third of the proposed universals hold cross-linguistically through ana...

Today, we published a paper on the strength of language universals (if language has X, it also has Y) given spatial & phylogenetic autocorrelation in @nathumbehav.nature.com ! It is a cool research project, led by the brilliant Annemarie Verkerk at @uni-saarland.de
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The New episode of PPLS Perspectives is available now!

Maisy Hallam chats with Prof. Jenny Culbertson about how #technology, #AI, and global change are reshaping the future of language — and why #linguistic diversity matters more than ever.

Listen now: edin.ac/4r7axdA

The lexicon adapts to competing communicative pressures: Explaining patterns of word similarity Cross-linguistically, lexicons tend to be more phonetically clustered than required by the phonotactics of the language; that is, words within a langu…

⚠️ New paper! Why do words sound so similar? In an agent-based model + communication game, we show that production/comprehension pressures trade off to shape lexicon structure.

In @cognitionjournal.bsky.social w/ @simonkirby.bsky.social & Jenny Culbertson.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@mandolinguist.bsky.social in my professional opinion, everyone’s an aunty until proven otherwise

We've just
launched a Discord server for #jsPsych users to collaborate and get technical help.

I'll be hosting office hours tomorrow from 10:30-11:30 AM EDT. Hop in with any questions!

discord.gg/RCKWJ4qb3p

Predictive Structure Emerges During the Generalisation of Kin Terms to New Referents Abstract. Despite cross-linguistic diversity in how kin relations map to terminology, there are constraints on which kin may be categorised together. But what are the constraints on kin term variation...

New paper in @openmindjournal.bsky.social with @simonkirby.bsky.social, @kennysmithed.bsky.social and Fiona Jordan! Kinship terms overwhelmingly exhibit predictive structure - terms in one part of the system help us predict other terms - a pattern which emerges because it helps us generalise better.

If you like semantic category systems and efficiency biases, come say hi at #CogSci2025!

Efficient communication drives the semantic structure of kinship terminology (P3-H-71, Friday 2 Aug @ 13:00)

A blonde woman in a grey t-shirt and a brunette woman in a red vest sit at a table. Both are smiling. On the table there is a plush monkey toy, a blue tray, and a green vine.

Join us at the National Museum of Scotland July 19th to learn about animal communication and what makes human communication different from the rest of our primate family! 🐵 www.nms.ac.uk/events/monke...

comic with top sentence: "I'm done with experiments" and bottom sentence "Well, there's one more, but then i'll be done." Two arrows on either side, one pointing up the other down form a loop motion. A label at the bottom says "The last three years of your P.h.D.

This comic is attacking me personally.

via @phdcomics.bsky.social and with Alt-text.

This, from a country whose economy has, for more than 20 years, been substantially subsidised by the benefits flowing from connection to a major movie franchise associated with a piece of fantasy literature...

can I code fast? no. but can I code well? also no. but does my code work? alas, no

a ph-tea!!! i know the true meaning of research envy in this moment.