Language and linguistics

Language without structure? How can LLMs speak all the languages without knowing any of the rules?

Talks Wolfson College, OxfordXML seminar "Human Language Meets AI" · 30 April 2026 · Talk

How LLMs Understand Text: Context and Meaning in the AI Age

Talks Kellogg College, Oxford · 17 November 2025 · Talk

Large Language Models represent an entirely new paradigm of semantic information processing. They are the first time a computer can process the meaning of text without mark-up. Their ability to 'understand' text is at the same time…

What have Large Language Models actually learned about language

Talks Wolfson College, OxfordXML · 26 November 2024 · Talk

This talk will explore what exactly large language models (LLMs) have learned about languages, and why it matters. It will attempt an outline of an answer to how these models understand the structure of language, and how this compares…

Semantic Machines

Talks Digital Humanities Summer School · 14 August 2024 · Talk

The major breakthrough of generative AI and specifically Large Language Models is the ability to work with unstructured documents with no semantic mark up. Combined with broad cross linguistic capabilities, this has great potential for…

3 fundamental problems of translating metaphor (or anything else)

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 6 March 2022 · Blog post

The piece explains how idiomaticity, underdetermination, and textual cohesion make metaphor translation difficult for the same reasons that translation generally is difficult.

Úvod do analýzy textov

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2020 · Journalism

The review presents a mathematically demanding university textbook that applies quantitative analysis across levels of language from sounds to discourse.

What would make linguistics a better science? Science as a metaphor

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 28 April 2019 · Blog post

The piece argues that linguistics will improve through a productive interaction between better data and better theory rather than through more rigid definitions alone.

Therapy for Frege: A brief outline of the theory of everything

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 16 May 2018 · Blog post

The piece argues that perfect reference is impossible and proposes pragmatic, provisional heuristics for living with the resulting limits on knowledge and rationality.

10 ways in which music is like language and 8 (more important) ways in which it is not

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 19 March 2018 · Blog post

The piece compares music and language to show that their shared structural features do not erase fundamental differences in meaning, acquisition, and dialogue.

17 Things Everyone Should Know About Language But Doesn’t Even Know to Ask

Writing Medium · 11 March 2018 · Blog post

The piece presents seventeen findings from linguistics that teachers, journalists, policy experts, and grammar commentators should understand about language.

Jazyk, svoboda a řeč jazykovědné moci

Dominik Lukeš

Research Petru Fideliovi (Triáda) · 2018 · Chapter or afterword

There are too many words for scavenger in Czech but none of them was good enough for Star Wars…

Writing Medium · 22 December 2015 · Blog post

The piece argues that translation choices reflect differences in meaning and practical constraints rather than gaps in a language's vocabulary.

What language looks like: Dictionary and grammar are to language what standing on one foot is to running

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 5 November 2014 · Blog post

The piece argues that dictionaries and grammars depict language posed for analysis rather than language operating in social use.

Anthropologists' metaphorical shenanigans: Or how (not) to research metaphor

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 3 August 2014 · Blog post

The piece argues that claims about exceptional metaphor use in Indigenous American languages require comparative evidence rather than cultural stereotypes.

What does it mean when words 'really' mean something: Dismiss the Miss

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 17 May 2014 · Blog post

The piece argues that the title Miss has no fixed meaning but remains connected to histories and practices of gender inequality.

Linguistics according to Fillmore

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 15 February 2014 · Blog post

The piece traces Charles Fillmore's contributions to case grammar, frame semantics, construction grammar, and FrameNet.

5 things everybody should know about language: Outline of linguistics' contribution to the liberal arts curriculum

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 1 January 2014 · Blog post

The piece proposes five sociolinguistic principles for general education and argues against grammar-centred language teaching.

Binders full of women with mighty pens: What is metonymy

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 14 December 2013 · Blog post

The piece explains forms of metonymy and shows how metonymic connections shape imagery, inference, and public discourse.

Three books of the year 2013 and some books of the century 1900-2013

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 17 November 2013 · Blog post

The piece recommends three books from 2013 and evaluates influential twentieth-century works on language, society, and fiction.

Sunsets, horizons and the language/mind/culture distinction

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 24 August 2013 · Blog post

The piece argues that language, mind, and culture are overlapping analytical heuristics rather than separate entities with causal priority.

Framing and constructions as a bridge between cognition and culture: Two Abstracts for Cognitive Futures

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 26 January 2013 · Blog post

The two conference abstracts propose frames and construction grammar as bridges between cognitive accounts and cultural analysis.

The complexities of simple: What simple language proponents should know about linguistics [updated]

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 28 September 2012 · Blog post

The piece argues that accessible writing requires attention to context, text structure, and language variation beyond mechanical readability rules.

Pseudo-education as a weapon: Beyond the ridiculous in linguistic prescriptivism

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 9 August 2012 · Blog post

The piece argues that pseudo-knowledge about grammar turns linguistic prejudice into a tool for judging and excluding people.

Online Corpora for Literacy Teachers — Part I

Dominik Lukeš

Research Dyslexia Review 23(2), pp. 23–25 · 2012 · Journal article

Online Corpora for Literacy Teachers — Part II

Dominik Lukeš

Research Dyslexia Review 23(3), pp. 19–21 · 2012 · Journal article

Ou tú brúte: Aneb jak nám Kodák narost

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2012 · Journalism

The column argues that speakers and institutions collectively produce Czech usage through choices such as how to pronounce foreign brand names.

Životy v olympijských pravdách: O jazykovém soukromí

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2012 · Journalism

The column argues that Olympic branding laws can police public expression but cannot privatise language because speakers continually adapt regulated words to new political purposes.

Comedian identifies a critical flaw in structuralism: Are distinctive features like leather sleeves

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 24 March 2011 · Blog post

The piece uses a comedy routine about leather sleeves to question analyses based on distinctive features.

The brain is a bad metaphor for language

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 11 March 2011 · Blog post

The piece argues that neuroscience cannot explain language by assuming direct structural correspondences between brain activity and linguistic phenomena.

Literally: Triumph of pet peeve over matter

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 23 February 2011 · Blog post

The piece uses corpus evidence to argue that literally functions primarily as an intensifier and secondarily as a disambiguator.

Mezi rohlíkem a Masarykem: O sémiotické nicotnosti a stavitelích významů

Writing A2 · c. 2011 · Journalism

The piece argues that words and symbols acquire meaning through the interpretive practices of communities rather than through inherent significance.

What Should Literacy Teachers Know about Language and Linguistics?

Dominik Lukeš

Research Dyslexia Review 22(1) · 2011 · Journal article

Why Chomsky doesn't count as a gifted linguist

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 1 August 2010 · Blog post

The piece argues that Chomsky's formal influence did not produce comparable insight into language as a social and functional phenomenon.

I write like… a new more sophisticated stripper name?

Writing Metaphor Hacker · 22 July 2010 · Blog post

The piece uses inconsistent automated author comparisons to show how people construct identities from arbitrary similarities.

Floskule

Writing A2 · c. 2010 · Journalism

The piece argues that formulaic expressions are necessary building blocks of language rather than evidence of empty thought.

O sémiotické nicotnosti

Writing A2 · c. 2010 · Journalism

The piece argues that words and symbols acquire meaning through the interpretive practices of communities rather than through inherent significance.

Vládci významu a formy I.: Význam

Writing A2 · c. 2010 · Journalism

The piece argues that social power and context determine which interpretations of an utterance become authoritative.

If a word falls in the woods...The interactional nature of meaning

Writing dominiklukes.net (2005–2009) · 1 February 2009 · Essay

The piece uses a campaign to save endangered words to argue that word meaning depends on interaction and use.

No fair in Bulgarian: Universals of language and particulars of culture

Writing dominiklukes.net (2005–2009) · 30 January 2009 · Essay

The piece criticises claims that a language's vocabulary directly explains corruption and distinguishes linguistic categories from social conditions.

Anaphoric islands, the free world and folk theories of language

Writing dominiklukes.net (2005–2009) · 11 January 2009 · Essay

The piece uses public discussion of Bushisms to examine anaphoric mismatches and folk theories about language.

7 Common Myths About Language and Learning

Dominik Lukeš

Research 2009 · Talk with slides

s/z: British/American approaches to personali(s/z)ed learning

Writing dominiklukes.net (2005–2009) · 12 January 2008 · Essay

The piece uses the spelling difference between British and American English to introduce competing meanings of personalised learning.

Říše slova: Zamarovský dějin řeči

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2008 · Journalism

The review praises Nicholas Ostler's global history of languages for connecting linguistic change with social and political history while noting inevitable simplifications and translation flaws.

Negotiating radial categories: Some mothers do have them

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 4 November 2007 · Blog post

The piece uses adoption terminology to illustrate how speakers negotiate the boundaries of the radial category of motherhood.

Convention over logic: Limits of implicature

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 14 October 2007 · Blog post

The piece uses an anomalous newspaper reference to suspects to show how journalistic convention can override ordinary pragmatic implicature.

Changes in word meaning and folk theories of reasonable mappings

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 2 September 2007 · Blog post

The piece argues that a linguist's account of political word change participates in frame negotiation while drawing authority from expert status.

Lol cats and conventionalization of semiotic systems

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 2 September 2007 · Blog post

The piece uses LOLcats to show how multimodal constructions conventionalise through both emergent patterns and deliberate human codification.

Searching for coherence in high-stakes utterances

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 1 September 2007 · Blog post

The piece explains a pageant contestant's incoherent answer as a failed attempt to integrate stock public frames under pressure rather than evidence of low intelligence.

Paradox of the evolutionary metaphor in language death

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 24 August 2007 · Blog post

The piece argues that evolutionary metaphors for language preservation overstate the universal value of every linguistic and cultural feature.

Blurring the lines of folk and expert theory

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 23 August 2007 · Blog post

The piece argues that folk and expert theories of clear language occupy a socially determined continuum rather than separate categories.

Walking robots and local grammars

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 14 July 2007 · Blog post

The piece uses autonomous walking circuits as an analogy for overlapping local language processes that do not require a central grammar module.

Sources of usage consensus in language change

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 12 July 2007 · Blog post

The piece asks how internet usage and social reinforcement should inform evidence about consensus in changing spellings and idioms.

Conservatism as part fo language competence

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 11 July 2007 · Blog post

The piece argues that linguistic competence includes negotiated tension between conservative norms and innovation, including the linguist's political role.

Language Log: The Supreme Court Fails Semantics

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 8 July 2007 · Blog post

The piece rejects a context-free semantic analysis of a school banner and argues that its anti-establishment meaning arises through shared frames.

Professional linguists and folk theory of language

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 8 July 2007 · Blog post

The piece challenges assumptions that multilingualism uniformly improves openness, subsequent language learning or social understanding.

Wittgenstein and folk theories of language and intelligence

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 1 July 2007 · Blog post

The piece argues that a Wittgenstein quotation reflects folk theories that separate logical intelligence from language's imperfect and deceptive expression.

Havel on intertextuality

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 14 June 2007 · Blog post

The piece uses Václav Havel's description of political language to examine how verbal patterns spread through cognitive, textual and social processes.

Mis-entrenchment of codified blendings

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 6 June 2007 · Blog post

The piece uses a persistent misunderstanding of trophy wife to argue that speakers can privately misconstrue entrenched lexical and grammatical constructions.

Negotiating 'lie'

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 10 May 2007 · Blog post

The piece shows how public discourse negotiates whether political statements qualify as lies and which responses a lie permits.

Folk theory of meaning has hypostasis of reference in the Imus controversy

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 12 April 2007 · Blog post

The piece uses the Don Imus controversy to show how folk theories give figurative insults greater force when treated as literal references.

Text worlds, anaphora and syntactic structures as spandrels

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 23 March 2007 · Blog post

The piece uses anomalous anaphora to argue that syntax can serve as a logistical vehicle for building and blending text worlds.

McJobs, the Dictionary Wars and Folk Theories of Meaning

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 22 March 2007 · Blog post

The piece contrasts usage-based and reference-based folk theories of dictionary meaning through the dispute over the word McJob.

Images of language and learning in mavenry

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 8 January 2007 · Blog post

The piece rejects claims of linguistic decline while examining literacy, educational relevance, motivation and the social variability of expression.

Čeština bez vidu (angličtina bez časů)

Dominik Lukeš

Research Prague · 2007 · Paper

Podněty a plody Pražského lingvistického kroužku: ruská emigrace, česká sláva a 80té narozeniny

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2007 · Journalism

The feature recounts the history, leading figures, functional structuralism, and continuing influence of the Prague Linguistic Circle.

What does it mean when texts ‘really’ mean something?: Types of evidence for conceptual patterns in discourse

Dominik Lukeš

Research Cognitive Linguistics in Critical Discourse Analysis · 2007 · Talk with slides

Tom Waits and the surface of text

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 29 October 2006 · Blog post

The piece argues that a Tom Waits song gains force by violating stylistic expectations established across his body of work.

Localized textual performance in everyday narrative

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 21 October 2006 · Blog post

The piece argues that rhythmic delivery and short sentences can intensify an ordinary news report through localised textual performance.

Local grammars and space exploration

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 6 October 2006 · Blog post

The piece argues that familiar but formally irregular expressions can be understood as products of local grammars rather than dismissed as errors.

Language awareness as part of linguistic competence

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 9 July 2006 · Blog post

The piece argues that conscious public discussion of new dictionary entries may be part of linguistic change and linguistic competence.

Rationality and immigration

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 23 May 2006 · Blog post

The piece identifies an appeal to logic in the US language debate as a rhetorical syllogism that equates linguistic uniformity with national unity.

Linguistic nationalism and the USA

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 20 May 2006 · Blog post

The piece argues that debates over declaring English a national language reveal that English-speaking countries are not exempt from linguistic nationalism.

Prejudice, shared meanings, local grammars and Google as a resource for research

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 16 January 2006 · Blog post

The piece uses a Google prejudice map to propose local grammars as tools for mining how people talk about nations.

Self-organization of iconic linguistic items

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 10 January 2006 · Blog post

The piece uses spelling frequency islands to propose that language patterns combine rules, structural by-products, and stochastic organisation.

Social hypostasis of linguistic items

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 9 January 2006 · Blog post

The piece treats online pronunciation surveys as evidence that social internet participation can collect useful language data.

Towards a cognitive morphology of the folktale

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 29 December 2005 · Blog post

The post proposes a cognitive revision of Propp's folktale morphology in which narrative elements pair form with meaning and combine through conceptual integration.

Creation of meaning and music analogies

Writing Hermeneutic Heretic · 25 December 2005 · Blog post

The post compares meaning-making to continuously adjusting a musical note in order to challenge static and minimal definitions of concepts.

Purizmus, předsudky a pitominy

Writing Britské listy · 21 February 2005 · Journalism

The piece rejects linguistic purism as a collection of social prejudices that mistakes ordinary language change for decline.

Jak psát a nepsat česky

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2005 · Journalism

The review recommends a Czech writing guide that treats standard language as an evolving communicative system rather than a fixed set of prohibitions.

Language and Knowledge: Against Modularity as a Viable Theory of Language and Mind

Dominik Lukeš

Research School of Philosophy, University of East Anglia, Norwich · 2005 · Talk with slides

Nové myšlení o myšlení a o jazyce

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2005 · Journalism

The piece argues that embodied cognitive linguistics explains language and thought better than formal models that treat the mind as a rule-processing computer.

English–Czech parallel corpus for the comparative study of cohesion

Dominik Lukeš

Research GitHub: techczech/enczcohesioncorpus · 2002 · Dataset

Hledání univerzálního porozumění

Writing Respekt · c. 2002 · Journalism

The piece argues that universal values do not guarantee mutual understanding because cultures implement shared concepts through different communicative practices.

It's a challenge!

Writing The Prague Post · c. 2002 · Journalism

The piece explains why the English word challenge lacks a single reliable Czech equivalent and advises speakers to state the intended meaning.

Příklady politické korektnosti

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2002 · Journalism

The explainer surveys English terms associated with political correctness and distinguishes inclusive changes from mistaken or discriminatory applications.

Čeština na internetu: Více než možnosti, které čekají

Dominik Lukeš

Research Setkání s češtinou (Meeting with Czech), Prague · 2001 · Paper

Setkání s češtinou

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2001 · Journalism

The feature reports how an international conference brought comparative and practical perspectives on Czech language research to Czech scholars.

Terminologie a platonický svět gramatických idejí

Dominik Lukeš

Research Gramatická terminologie ve vyučování (Grammatical terminology and education), Prague · 2001 · Paper

Dva jazyky jedna hlava: Dětství, jinošství a tak dále

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 2000 · Journalism

The piece explains childhood bilingualism and gives parents practical guidance on language separation, literacy, identity, and motivation.

How do you think you're going?

Writing The Prague Post · c. 2000 · Journalism

The piece explains how Czech verbs of motion distinguish walking, travelling by vehicle, flying, and other kinds of movement.

It is necessary!

Writing The Prague Post · c. 2000 · Journalism

The piece introduces a column about words and constructions that resist direct translation between English and Czech.

Nobody's perfect

Writing The Prague Post · c. 2000 · Journalism

The piece contrasts the Czech and English tense systems and explains why English perfect tenses lack direct Czech equivalents.

The Story of Czech

Writing CR Business Guide · c. 2000 · Journalism

The piece introduces the history and structure of Czech while advising learners how to approach the language.

Czech: Frequently Asked Questions

Writing The Prague Post · c. 1999 · Journalism

The piece answers common questions about the history, grammar, dialects, and perceived difficulty of Czech.

V moci jazyka: Nad knihou ‘Řeč komunistické moci’

Writing Lidové noviny · c. 1998 · Journalism

The review praises Petr Fidelius's analysis of communist language while questioning whether some identified mechanisms are specific to communism or general properties of language.

Unification Categorial Grammar as a Type of Notation for Computer Analysis of Ancient Egyptian

Dominik Lukeš

Research Use of Computers in Historical and Comparative Linguistics · 1993 · Paper

Čistí a špinaví

Writing Respekt · Journalism

The piece shows how differences in praise, cleanliness, idioms, gestures, and refusal create consequential cross-cultural misunderstandings.

corpus-tools-skill

Agent skills Agent skill

Sets up a local corpus-linguistics toolchain on a Mac (NLTK, spaCy, Stanza, Corpus Workbench, OPUS) with a parallel-concordance tool. Draft.

Moc perspektivy

Writing Lidové noviny · Journalism

The review introduces Noam Chomsky's political and linguistic work and recommends Perspektivy moci despite its uneven selection and editorial shortcomings.

Našinec, vašinec nebo jejichnec: Pohled ze za...

Writing Lidové noviny · Journalism

David Short discusses Czech language and culture, British perceptions of Czech society, national identity, and the challenges of translation.

sketchengine-skill

Agent skills Agent skill

Connects an agent to Sketch Engine to run word sketches, word lists and keyword analyses on its corpora.

Testing the Semantic Baseline

Teaching Activity

We will be using Google AI Studio

Totalita v anarchii: aneb k čertu s mateřštinou

Writing Lidové noviny · Journalism

The essay argues that standard Czech is a useful convention but becomes oppressive when linguistic conformity is equated with intelligence, morality, or social worth.

Války o pravopis: Česká pravopisná reforma z anglosaské perspektivy

Writing Lidové noviny · Journalism

The review presents Neil Bermel's comparative study of Czech spelling disputes as an analysis of linguistic authority, national identity, and metaphors of language.