Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠 (@langofmind) / X

Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠

17.3K posts

Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠

@langofmind

Award-winning cog sci guy. Professionally curious. tinyurl.com/languageofmind

Joined October 2019

Pinned
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Mar 17, 2024
Arrival is one of my favorite movies! It raises so many interested questions about language, culture, biology, and the mind. So I made a video about it! Check it out! 👇 Alien Linguistics — The Science of Arrival youtu.be/lIPi3OiaG3I?si… via @YouTube
37K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Jul 19, 2023
you really gotta count the gorillas in this one
2.6M
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Dec 31, 2023
This is the best conlang, you can't change my mind
277K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Oct 14, 2023
This is the high quality linguistics research the journals don't want you to see
516K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Aug 19, 2024
For those who slept during their linguistic anatomy class
149K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Jul 20, 2023
Replying to @mordroberon
look agan
193K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Apr 7, 2025
The stoic philosopher Chrysippus died of laughter after seeing a donkey eating figs. View with caution
00:00
315K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Jul 16, 2024
MM/DD/YYYY is the best format because it organizes the date from lowest entropy to highest entropy, easing you in
349K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Sep 12, 2024
We call this an expletive or "dummy" pronoun, because it actually doesn't refer to anything! It's just there because English requires an overt subject, you can't just say "raining" (although you can in other languages!)
Richard Gipps
@DrGipps
Sep 11, 2024
when we say 'it is raining', what's the it?
91K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Nov 18, 2025
Bad news: linguistics has already solved this
florence 🦐🏳️‍🌈
@morallawwithin
Nov 18, 2025
My research? Oh, I do philosophy of law. You know how people say “It is illegal to litter”? I’m figuring out what the “it” refers to
135K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Aug 13, 2024
Re-reading early Chomsky, he repeatedly makes the claim that a grammar with a finite alphabet that generates sentences of finite length may produce an infinite set of sentences. Is this true, mathematically?
728K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Aug 13, 2024
Chomsky casually predicting LLMs in 1956
225K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Oct 28, 2024
Some linguistic hypotheses for these phenomena: 1. Deliberate ungrammaticality (or at the very least questionable grammaticality) as a signaling mechanism. Some of these also flout Gricean maxims (Rise of Skywalker is truly one of the movies of all time)
49K
Ryan Rhodes ⚙️🧠
@langofmind
Aug 4, 2025
What really grinds my gears about theories like this is that they produce a kind of illusion of curiosity. It sounds like we're engaging with tough questions. We want to know how this seemingly impossible thing was done. But it betrays a fundamental lack of curiosity!
Megalithic Marvels
@derek__olson
Aug 4, 2025
Notice the shocking layers, right angles & precision drill hole on this ancient rose granite box (approx 7-8 on Mohs scale of hardness) lying on Elephantine Island. The Dynastic Egyptians (3000-30 BC) are usually credited with shaping this with their softer copper chisels &
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