Jessi Grieser

9 Nov 2024

I’ve gotten a bunch of new followers of late. So hi; I’m a Black Woman sociolinguistics prof at my alma mater, Univ of Michigan. I skeet social justice, linguistics, productivity, teaching, cats and dogs, and NCAA sportsball. I contain multitudes.

22h

It was great to see everyone at #nwav54!!! And in case you ever wondered about the efficacy of a capsule wardrobe, now that it’s over, I would like to point out that I only packed six items of clothing besides pajamas and a jacket. Two tops, two bottoms, and two layers. 5 days.

“You are Linguistics professors but none of you speak French?” “Look. We can collectively talk to over 3 billion people between us, just not you.” #nwav54

@mixedlinguist.bsky.social

Dieu du Ciel! Walkwable from #nwav54 good vibe, good drinks and gender neutral bathrooms!

Jessi Grieser reposted

Prof. Nicole Holliday

Lots of students who studied linguistics 5 years ago are better off (socially, emotionally, financially) than the ones who did CS. And linguists are increasingly “useful” because we understand language! I am so sick of having to justify the value of education itself to the public (and to students).

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Tenor saxophones are the glue in a band. They never solo. They’re always asked to sound more like some other instrument. And they like that job. Make everything else work. But if you’re missing your tenor saxes, you notice. The piece doesn’t come together anymore. Yes, this is a metaphor.

Looking over notes from #NWAV53 as I send emails to #NWAV54 and boy there are people on the session chair list that I don't even remember being there. I am so looking forward to being able to be fully present with my colleagues this year!

Grey’s Anatomy. But I still watch it. 🙃

Nev Fountain@nevfountain.bsky.social

What TV show got so bad it effectively destroyed your appreciation for the show when it was was good?

Periodic reminder. We are now at (Fall 2020, I misspoke below, but that's the more consequential one--that 100% wacky academic year) Sr: 10th Jr: 9th So: 8th Fr: 7th I suspect the missing 7th/8th is the cause of students struggling with making new friends in classes and clubs.

Jessi Grieser@jessgrieser.com

I’ve talked to several people this week and we’ve all been going “what is happening to our students? Why can’t they do this basic stuff?” So I wrote this out for me and plan to make a more permanent version. On the left, current grade level. On the right, the year of schooling in spring 2020.

I hooe that when Coach Whittigham looks back at his career, he will remember that one season that he coached the Wolverines very fondly.

My insurance charged me $50 to have a nurse talk down to me about a drug about which I have read every paper ever published. 🙃 Our healthcare system is INSANE.

nytimes.comHow LARPing, a Gaming Term, Became a Word for Posers (Gift Article)Live-action role playing was associated with games like Dungeons & Dragons. Now, it’s a way to call someone out for being inauthentic.

What is "larping?" and how did a term associated with DND geeks end up going mainstream on insta? Happy to get to be a part of a writeup in @nytimes.com this week! www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/s...

Most days, woking at my alma mater feels nothing like going here. Other days, I find myself eating chicken broccoli bake for lunch in South Quad. #umich #umichdining #tastesthesame

docs.google.comKey Concepts in SociolinguisticsSome key concepts in sociolinguistics Face the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken Goffman, E. (2002). The presentation of self in e...

Last week I had to give a short intro on "What is Sociolinguistics" for our first-year Ph.D. proseminar. I whipped up a sheet in 20 mins of key concepts and their prime citations. I've missed several (20 mins!) so now I'm crowdsourcing. What needs added/siwtched? docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I don’t know who needs this but BLUE: 4 letters. Even. If your section is even, wear blue. MAIZE: 5 letters. Odd. If your section is odd, wear maize. @umichfball.bsky.social

22 Sept

Unpopular Michigan hot take from an Ohio defector: Fifth Third Bank is HUGE and just because you haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean it isn’t.

17 Sept

Perusall annotation: "Lexicon would be an awesome Transformer name for a Transformer that begins as a Lexus." 💀

16 Sept

I am the proud owner of a new iPhone 17 Pro and I would just like to observe that Steve Jobs absolutely would not have put up with this “cameras jutting out of the back of the phone” nonsense.

15 Sept

Last name Freely or Everywhere.

Keith Decent@keithdecent.bsky.social

This is a good example of why every office needs a chronically-online, internet-poisoned, absolute monstro-perv to run shit like this past before posting

10 Sept

My sports colleague logs on to our research meeting today. "Hey, Jessi. You got a second?" "We got lots! We're just giving them out up here!!!"

propublica.orgEctopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It’s Worse in States With Abortion Bans.With prompt and appropriate medical care, experts say, people shouldn’t die from an ectopic pregnancy. Women in Texas and Oklahoma have sued over delays in care, which, coupled with our new analysis, ...

Oh good they did a study. 🙃

ProPublica@propublica.org

NEW: Our analysis found that from 2020 to 2025, the rate of deaths involving ectopic pregnancies nearly doubled compared with the previous six-year period. The uptick was steeper in states with abortion bans.

A linguist would like to enter the chat but all the other social sciences have convinced themselves that just knowing language is the same as knowing linguistics....

Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave@wolven.blacksky.app

I'm really just starting to get a handle on this line & I don't have a strong argument for yet, but it seems there's this thing that happens where a lot of people hear "language creates thought & can even create perception" & then those people, agree or disagree, in their own heads add, "…ex nihilo"

If my contribution to the field of linguistics is the idea that the vocal tract is a "meat clarinet" I will be very fulfilled.

(technically we are meat oboes because there are two vocal folds but I am a single reed player.)

8 Sept

appendixicse this appendixize this appendicise this ... append this

8 Sept

Shared with me by my buddy @jennyflyrocks.bsky.social @americandialect.org #WOTY26

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7 Sept

Past me wrote some reading questions in Perusall off the top of her head. Today me wrote some reading questions in Canvas for the same assignment. They are basically the same questions. Happy to discover that Me is a good, consistent teacher at all times.

3 Sept

Michigan gave “pouring rights” to Coke after surveying the campus. And now we do not sell Vernors. This is a hate crime.

30 Aug

Gold star of the day awarded to the journal Gender and Language whose PDF downloads are already named author-year-title-title-title-subtitle-subtitle.pdf. Thank you!

28 Aug

Students: Yes, read your syllabi and know that this information is in them. Parents: Absolutely do not do this. This is unhinged. Also the use of GPT for this purpose is WILD. No, GPT is not likely to summarize my syllabi in a way that will tell you, or your student, what I expect. I tell them.

28 Aug

This is my favorite linguistics fact. They are all basically named “SHIT that’s a LOT of water!”

Craig Baird-Canadian History Ehx@cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social

Before Europeans arrived, these were some of the names for The Great Lakes: Superior: gichi-gami (great sea) Erie: erielhonan (long tail) Michigan: michigami (long body of water) Ontario: Ontarí'io\kanadario (great lake\beautiful water) Huron: karegnondi (fresh water sea)

26 Aug

Admire English grammar in this sentence I just sent to tech support: "No, tell the person who told you that that that is not a thing." Relative clauses, relative pronoun and demonstrative pronouns. Check that ish out.

adp.comSalary Paycheck Calculator – Calculate Net Income | ADPADP’s paycheck calculator shows you how to calculate net income and salary for employees.

26 Aug

The most recent John Irving novel begins by detailing how the next person to be talked about has a great grandfather who landed at Plymouth despite the fact that the rest of the story takes place in the 1920s, and if I didn’t know it was Irving, I would’ve thought that opening was an Irving parody.

Jessi Grieser reposted

[Exit Queen.]

In my spare time, I'm a money nerd. I usually do money commentary on FB, but I have a little bigger reach to academics here, and this is academic specific. Academic fiscal years typically run July-June or July-Aug. Which means the start of the school year often has a new salary. /1

The first 4 are the 4 I do, the 5th is one I'd add if I needed to. I love using ADP's paycheck calculator to get within a couple dollars (sometimes it's been cents) of my first takehome pay of the new fiscal year. www.adp.com/resources/to... 8/

Have everything decided before the first deposit lands, and you'll make the most out of that tiny bit the regents have deemed you worthy of. And if there's money left over? Add it straight to your fun spending. $50 added to a modest dining out budget feels decadent and makes it easier to save. /fin

4-Your healthcare spending. This is less so about a salary adjustment and more so about the fact that some sadistic jerk put open enrollment at midterms. You are not going to look at your healthcare spending in October. Do it now and decide if your plan still works for you or not. 6/

apps.irs.govTax Withholding Estimator - About you | Internal Revenue Service

5-Kids. I don't have them, but they *also* do their big changes in August, conveniently for us academics. Is daycare going up? Is one kid starting public school and you're getting the daycare raise? How will that change your financial year? This is the perfect time to look at that. 7/

2-Your W-4. By now, most of us have gotten our taxes for the prior year settled. Ideally, you want your money working for *you* throughout the year, not the government. So if you got a big refund, now's a good time to recalculate your withholding. apps.irs.gov/app/tax-with... 4/

3-Savings. This is a great time to look at your monthly inflows & outflows. Even if you don't typically do this every month (most people! it's fine! I'm a nerd!), at annual reset time is a good time to look. Any savings you want to bump up? Do it now and you won't feel it. 5/

Note, I hope for most people, it's a raise, however tiny. But it also might be a new policy from work that takes it down. Or maybe a grant is ending. Either which way, it's the right time of year to look at things. But what to look at? /2

1- Your retirement elections. It's easy, especially because education raises are SO SMALL, to ignore the need to bump up your retirement savings to match. Over time, though, this can leave you saving less than you meant to. So go into your HR platform and give your retirement the same raise. 3/

21 Aug

Ann Arbor in the summer is 4 people bringing caprese salad to the potluck because everyone’s tomato and basil are out of control.

20 Aug

Receiving "can I come do a PhD with you" emails, I wonder if students' not realizing I know their writing is AI generated comes from a generational shift in exposure to MadLibs? "I am fascinated by your expertise in *expertises on faculty page*. I loved reading *article on Google Scholar.*"

20 Aug

Student: Will you write me a rec letter? I was in your 150-student class 3 years ago in this term. Me: I was on sabbatical that term, so no you weren't. (There is a thread here about how to get rec letters but I don't have time to write it. But this way ain't it.)

youtube.comWhat is Linguistics?: Crash Course Linguistics #1YouTube video by CrashCourse

19 Aug

Love this description: if you think Ann Arbor is a big city, you need to go someplace else for a while. but if you’ve been in a big city and think that Ann Arbor is the perfect size, you’re probably right.

Jessi Grieser reposted

Gretchen McCulloch

@gretchenmcculloch.com

17 Aug

If you're wishing you could go back to school for linguistics, here's your annual reminder that Crash Course Linguistics @thecrashcourse.bsky.social exists! I worked on it with linguists @superlinguo.bsky.social and @jessgrieser.com, host Taylor Behnke, @complexly.org and @thoughtcafe.bsky.social!