Shit Linguists Say

real quotes said by real linguists — submit yours now!

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

📌 we have quite the backlog of quotes from over the years, but we're always open to your submissions!
- send them in at https://t.co/ZxeTDQIR53
- we reserve the right to decide what to post, but the only real exclusion criteria is offensiveness
- DM if you have questions!

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

“They can say this because the other speaker knows the moon exists. This is not new or surprising information.”

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"A noun-y thing is a thing-y thing, and a verb-y thing is an event-y thing"

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"What’s your glottis doing?"

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

Hear something wild at #nwav50, #cogsci2022, #XPrag, #signcafe2, or any other recent conferences?

Maybe you’re a first-year Ling student whose intro class has gotten a bit absurd?

We want to share the love and humor!
Send us your best quotes!

https://t.co/ZxeTDR0rWB

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"If you were going to christen a new ship and some rando came up and knocked you over and said “I hereby christen this ship the USS Go Fuck Yourself" you wouldn't say "dangit, now we have to call it that forever!"

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"Asking a linguist how many languages they speak is like asking a doctor how many diseases they have"

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"I have a Masters in Latin. Don’t ask me why"

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"No more ambiguity – everybody loves Beyoncé."

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"The purpose of Morphosyntax II is to inoculate you against as many weird structures as possible"

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"A noun-y thing is a thing-y thing, and a verb-y thing is an event-y thing"

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"if you just keep talking and you keep embedding clauses, you will eventually die."

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"Everything you were taught about language at school? Yeah, it’s wrong”

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

“They can say this because the other speaker knows the moon exists. This is not new or surprising information.”

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

“I don’t think he had a poetic or metrical agenda, because he was a plumber writing a book to teach other plumbers how to do do plumbing”

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

“Not all adjuncts are created equally”

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

“Time flies when you're talking about velar lateral ejective affricates”

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"For [k] and [ʔ] you have to crawl down the speaker’s throat, which is not a good idea"

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

“This usage is so atypical that it sounds like fanfiction”

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"So verbs from the semantic field of murder are pretty interesting."

[Shit Linguists Say @LingProfsSay]

"Armchair linguistics is a valid scientific method."