iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 2h

Why is it ‘counterexpectation’ but not ‘unexpectation’? 🧐 (‘Unexpectedness’ being the less elegant alternative)

Reposted by Jenneke van der Wal

Darin Flynn @phono-logical.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

“A sketch of Hadza grammar” by Andrew Harvey, Richard Griscom and Jeremy Coburn (Sep. ’26) journals.flvc.org/sal/article/...

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Zo exciting! Onze Stemmen van Afrika scheurkalender is in de voorverkoop - volg de link en bestel ‘m alvast! www.universityshopleiden.nl/nl/boeken/57...

universityshopleiden.nl

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Further variation on the meme: The year is 1986. The president was born in 1944 The year is 1996. The president was born in 1944 The year is 2006. The president was born in 1944. The year is 2016. The president was born in 1944. The year is 2026. The president was born in 1944. (Where are we?)

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Who are the African linguists that all students should learn about? (Salikoko Mufwene, Martine Vanhove, Roland Kiessling, Nana Aba Appiah Amfo…) #linguistics

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Voorproefje van wat er over een maand komt: de Stemmen van Afrika scheurkalender! We zijn druk bezig met de laatste dagen nakijken, maar wat wordt ‘ie tof! Nog even geduld en je kan ‘m bestellen voor al je vrienden 🤩

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Please enjoy the beauty of this little cup of jasmine tea

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The third meeting of the Applicatives Alternations Across Languages network is in full swing in Göttingen! @andraas.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy, Jozina Vander Klok and Jens Hopperdietzel thanks for organising us! aaal.uni-koeln.de

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Pavel Ozerov just used the term “all you can drop” language and I think we should use this from now on

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Volgend jaar brengen vormgever en kaartenmaker Frans van der Vleuten en ik een boek uit met 100 kaarten over alledaagse taal en cultuur in Nederland – en daar kun jij aan bijdragen! Vul onze enquêtes in en jouw data komen op de kaarten. 🗺️ Nu online: enquête 1: studiovandervleuten.nl/boek-vraag/

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Also, Osnabrück definitely has the best traffic lights 🤩😂🐴

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Wrap up! Our workshop at #SLE59 ‘The morphosyntax of who knows what and how’ has been incredibly enriching: new data (once you know about epistemicity, you can start seeing it in the lgs of the world), new comparisons, new theoretical ideas from different frameworks!

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

As the final speaker of our workshop, Mandred Krifka explained how epistemic operators influence commitment: the speaker gives reasons why the addressee should accept what the speaker says. Funnily enough, saying ‘certainly’ weakens the commitment! #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Look at this amazing system of Kichwa (Ecuador) epistemic markers that Giosuè Balocco presented! He argued that the famous =mi is actually the speaker’s proposal to integrate info into the common ground. Other enclitics also manipulate the CG and are not determined by authority. #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Eva Poliakova presented how in Telengit (Turkic, Altai) the non-firsthand/indirective past -tır is more likely to be used if the info is 1) surprising and/or 2) recently acquired. Now you’ve just learned this and are possibly surprised about it! #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Emai (Edoid, Nigeria) has an incredibly rich conjugation system, which Ronald Schaeffer & Francis Egbokare know all about! The preverbal domain can host a whole range of markers with epistemic functions, showing speculation, assumption, or deduction of info (and more!) #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Does your language have a marker for ‘this is totally expected information’? Gizey (Chadic, Cameroon) does, and Guillaume Guitang told us all about it on the second day of our epistemicity workshop @ #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Henrik Bergqvist took us on a conceptual thinking exercise: how do Levinson’s frames work for knowledge, as absolute, intrinsic or relative? Can this account for the markers in Kogi? Food for thought! #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Did you know that pseudoclefts not only structure the information, but also give a good indication of how interlocutors navigate the shared-issue space? Nariman Aliakbar & Agnes Celle presented how pseudoclefts give cues to constrain the epistemic affordance of the utterance #SLE59

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Intenudas @izmarasan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Yesterday was the Ranar Hausa , the day of hausa language and culture . The hausa language is the most spoken language in west Africa .

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Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

In 2025 @bnuyaminim.bsky.social and me taught a course on Comparative Semitics at the Leiden Summer School. After some cleaning up, we've decided to upload the syllabus and release it under a CC license for you and yours to peruse through. doi.org/10.17613/b4z...

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Thera Crane and Eva-Marie Bloom Ström presented “ungrammatical” uses of the conjoint/disjoint verb forms in Xhosa and Ndengeleko with intensifying, mirative, verum interpretations - extravagance in marking corresponds to extravagance in meaning #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

In today’s last session, Mike Diercks showed his arguments for late merger of information structural items, based on surface-oriented Bantu phenomena. The meanings are derivationally late (high in the tree) but the morphology shows up low. This should work for other epistemic markers too #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Shihong Zhou and Jeannette Sakel explain how Mandarin ‘hao’ indicates shared knowledge with addressee authority, whereas ‘ao’ is used when the speaker knows and the addressee doesn’t - because of speaker authority, ao can then also be used deontically 💡 #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Valentina Colasanti presents on ‘mani giunti’ as a co-speech gesture indicating a mismatch between the speaker and addressee. Gestures can be epistemic markers too! #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Here are Zoe Tribur and Bettina Zeisler presenting how flexible and multifunctional the egophoric/factive Tibetan copulas are. They propose 3 dimensions of meaning: knowledge-related, event-related, and an interactional value - all interacting #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

@cbodnaruk.com presented his overview of Trans-Himalayan languages and how simple or complex their epistemic systems are in bith form and function #SLE59

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

And we’re off! First fascinating session of our workshop ‘the morphosyntax of who knows what and how’ at #SLE59 Setting the scene for the joint thinking with @karolina-grzech.bsky.social and @wmartina.bsky.social

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Elisabeth J. Kerr @elisabethjkerr.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Day 1 of the 11th International Conference on the Bantu Languages, happening here in Ghent! #Bantu11

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de Volkskrant @volkskrant.nl · 18/08/2026

Dit zijn, wereldwijd, de hoeders van de Nederlandse taal – en ze doen het met liefde

volkskrant.nl

Dit zijn, wereldwijd, de hoeders van de Nederlandse taal – en ze doen het met liefde

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

What do ‘Miranda’, ‘legend’, and ‘agenda’ have in common? They come from Latin gerundives: verbal forms that express obligation. For instance, Latin ‘mīranda’ means “she who is to be admired”. Zoom in on my new graphic to learn more about the gerundive and discover other gerundives in English:

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Lameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Tired of Sartre's cliché about how "Hell is other people"? Try this Kabyle proverb instead, which might be loosely rendered as: "To Hell with Paradise if I have to be all alone in it!"

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Reposted by Jenneke van der Wal

Linguistic Discovery @linguisticdiscovery.com · 01/08/2026

A language is generally considered endangered when children are no longer learning it, or learning it in fewer numbers than previous generations. Ethnologue currently considers 3,193 of the world’s 7,159 languages (about 45%) to be some degree of endangered.

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Reposted by Jenneke van der Wal

Nutwerk🔻 @nutwerk.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Klimaatmars. Zaterdag 12 september. #Amsterdam klimaatmars.nl

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Benjamin Suchard @bnuyaminim.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Turn a movie into a linguistics article

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Lameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Here's his comparative Cushitic database: ahmedsosal.github.io/CLD/#/lexicon

ahmedsosal.github.io

Cushitic Lexical Database

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Reposted by Jenneke van der Wal

Maarten Kossmann @maartenkossmann.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

It was a great honor to be part of the defence by Ahmed Sosal of his PhD Thesis "A Lexical and Phonological Reconstruction of Highland East Cushitic. Many congratulations to Doctor Sosal! The book csn be downloaded for free through the following link: www.lotpublications.nl/a-lexical-an...

lotpublications.nl

A Lexical and Phonological Reconstruction of Highland East Cushitic: including a Comparative East Cushitic Database

Ahmed Sosal: A Lexical and Phonological Reconstruction of Highland East Cushitic: including a Comparative East Cushitic Database

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

One more week to apply for this 3-year postdoc position on the syntax of interactive linguistics: deadline 10 July. Come work with me! careers.universiteitleiden.nl/job/Postdoct...

careers.universiteitleiden.nl

Postdoctoral researcher Syntax of interactional linguistics

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ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Upwards, by Wassily Kandinsky, 1929, (rotated, detail), 📸 by Lars Baron

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

One more week to apply for this 3-year postdoc position on the syntax of interactive linguistics: deadline 10 July. Come work with me! careers.universiteitleiden.nl/job/Postdoct...

careers.universiteitleiden.nl

Postdoctoral researcher Syntax of interactional linguistics

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I ❤️ thesis examining season ☕️ 😊

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I am advertising a 3y syntax postdoc to work on the project ‘Interactional linguistics from periphery to core’ - see the link for details! careers.universiteitleiden.nl/job/Postdoct...

careers.universiteitleiden.nl

Postdoctoral researcher Syntax of interactional linguistics

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Søren Sandager Sørensen @sorensorensen.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

SLE program is out!!! Hope to see you Saturday Aug 29. at 10!!! 🐦🐦 societaslinguistica.eu/sle2026/wp-c...

societaslinguistica.eu

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Dr Danny Bate @dannybate.com · 14/06/2026

Romanian forms its '-teen' numbers by means of the element -sprezece, from unsprezece (11) to nouăsprezece (19). This construction is very distinctive among Romance languages, and -sprezece may look opaque, but its origin is enjoyably simple: super decem 'above ten' in Latin.

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