GeorgeWalkden

GeorgeWalkden, 7 months ago to linguistics

Fun new book that’s just come out with Palgrave: “Medieval English in a Multilingual Context”, edited by Sara Pons-Sanz and Louise Sylvester. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-30947-2

The book provides overviews of the state of the art as well as new research on multilingualism in Britain and its surroundings during the medieval period, highlighting something linguists have always known: England, and English, were never an isolated island. #linguistics @linguistics (1/3)

GeorgeWalkden, 7 months ago to linguistics

A new paper by me and my team has just appeared, in full Open Access. It’s about the project STARFISH, which looks at what happens in the history of languages when people learn those languages as adults. This paper focuses on the project’s methodology and what we stand to gain from a historical corpus approach. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968X.12275 #linguistics @linguistics

GeorgeWalkden, 7 months ago to linguistics

I’m seeing a worrying tendency in linguistic theorizing to appeal to the notion of “abduction”. This is unfortunate, as the term is multiply ambiguous, and not hugely coherent or useful. In philosophy of science it’s largely been abandoned in favour of a better-defined and better-theorized alternative, “inference to the best explanation” (as Lipton defines it). (1/2) #linguistics @linguistics

GeorgeWalkden, 10 months ago to linguistics

This map, from Jackson (1953) “Language and history in early Britain”, is beautifully evocative. #linguistics @linguistics