Fragile men and fishy arguments Abstract What happens when someone tells you that you are offended, even though you do not feel offended yourself? Contested attributions of offence provide an interesting testing ground for how one’s...

New paper co-authored with Chi-Hé Elder and Eleni Kapogianni out now in the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict - and it’s open access!

Keywords:
offence attribution, offence-taking, moral transgressions, plausible deniability, online interaction

3/3 Here it is in motion this morning.

2/3 … a resident fox!

1/3 We had to move house a couple of weeks ago. This meant saying goodbye to the neighbourhood cat we came to love - despite its best attempts at packing itself. While there is no replacement for this lap tiger, we have been delighted to find out that our new place comes with …

Neighbourhood cat is NOT helping today

stitch from the movie lilo and stitch is crying while covering his eyes with his hands . ALT: stitch from the movie lilo and stitch is crying while covering his eyes with his hands .

Why can I not write a 2k-word summary of existing literature without first writing a 20k-work summary of that literature? #academicwriting

8am online presentation after about 3 hours of sleep made tolerable by emotional support and lap-warming neighbourhood cat

... discussing Searle's work without acknowledging the sexual harassment. Do I add a footnote? Or should I simply not discuss his work at all (and add a footnote saying why)?

1/2 Just found out that John Searle died a couple of weeks ago. Also just found out about the sexual harassment...

Serious question: how do we deal with morally problematic academics? I'm currently writing a book that contains some sections on Searlean SAT. Not sure I feel comfortable...

a screenshot of a color picker window with a rainbow of colors ALT: a screenshot of a color picker window with a rainbow of colors

Making a slideshow is 1 part sorting out content and 2 parts sorting out design 😣
#academia

2/2 Featuring our own case study which looks at accountability and the life-cycle of Jimmy Carr's holocaust joke.

1/2 📢 Special issue on offensive humour, edited by Chi-Hé Elder, Eleni Kapogianni and myself, out now in Pragmatics & Cognition. It contains a great range of papers which cover data from private & public settings, comedic performances, scripted TV dialogue, online platforms, and political discourse

Puzzles, puns & politics in Blue Prince [SILYPI | podcast | e12] YouTube video by Say It Like You Play It

YouTube version up now as well!

Blue Prince: puzzles, puns, and politics

📢 New episode of Say It Like You Play It

@indiegameclinic.bsky.social & I talk about the puzzle adventure game Blue Prince (@dogubomb.bsky.social)

We discuss:

💬 The game's world & lore
💬 Word play in puzzles, as clues, & for fun
💬 Colour semiotics
💬 Sign versus noise ratio
💬 (Un)translatability

Thank you!

Neighbourhood cat is helping with a job application today.

Neighbourhood cat helping me clean and sort some of my recent finds #mudlarking

Semiotics and (video) games Say It Like You Play It · Episode

📢 New episode of Say It Like You Play It!

@indiegameclinic.bsky.social & I talk about the semiotics of (video) games:

💬 Definitions & different types of signs
💬 Multi-modality
💬 Genre-specific & genre-independent semiotics
💬 Signs vs. ludemes
💬 Examples like UI, rarity colours, & controls

it looks like a pixel art of a flower with a skull on it 's head . ALT: it looks like a pixel art of a flower with a skull on it 's head .

My partner, who is a game designer, just described my severe pollen allergies as "being weak to flowers". Savage but accurate.

YouTube version up now

Today, the neighbourhood cat is acting as assistant of assistant managing editor for the journal of politeness research.

Chants of Sennaar & Sethian reactions: what makes a good language puzzle game? Say It Like You Play It · Episode

🎙️ new episode of Say It Like you Play It

@indiegameclinic.bsky.social & I discuss language puzzle games Chants of Sennaar & Sethian. Topics include:

📜 language puzzle & translation mechanics
📜 embedding conlangs in game-worlds
📜 player vs. player-character knowledge
📜 complexity of conlangs

Is this a little guy or am I imagining it? #fieldwalking #mudlarking

Language, character design, and world building Say It Like You Play It · Episode

2/2 You can listen on all major podcast platforms

Features discussions of research by Danielle Burrell Kim, Emily Villanueva, and @astridensslin.bsky.social

1/2 🎙️ new episode of Say It Like you Play it

@indiegameclinic.bsky.social and I discuss language in character creation & world building:

❕language ideologies
❕characters with accents & speech impediments
❕conlangs & orthography
❕Dragon Age, Pillars of Eternity, Cyberpunk 2077, Disco Elysium

Afternoon sun magic ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Chair fine, lap better?

Neighbourhood cat has their own office chair now.

2/2 @indiegameclinic.bsky.social and I discuss:

💬 Humour, puns, & wordplay
💬 Lexical differences between rule & flavour texts
💬 Functions & forms of keywords & card names
💬 Localization & Japanese Kanji
💬 Communicative affordances & limitations of the emote system
💬 Players' take on "bad manners"

Hearthstone deep dive: when game studies meets linguistics Say It Like You Play It · Episode

1/2 🎙️ Episode 8 of Say It Like You Play It is out on YouTube & major podcast platforms: open.spotify.com/episode/7KmB...

This month we take a close look at Blizzard's online collectible card game 'Hearthstone' and three research papers which study the game in relation to language and communication.