Anita Slonimska, PhD

"Before we name, we touch. We propose that the roots of language lie not in abstract, amodal symbols but in early bodily experience." Our Opinion paper is out in TICS. Congrats Luca Sergey Rinaldi !! sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

📢 PhD position in Developmental Language Modelling (plz RT🙏) What can human language acquisition teach us about training language models? Join us as a PhD! 4 yrs, fully funded, MPI-NL; april 3 mpi.nl/career-educati…

This work takes a first step toward bridging relevance theory and empirical research on multimodal communication in context, illustrating how the theoretical concept of ostension can be applied to a multimodal view of language. 6/6

We show that speakers increase the use of ostensive cues (e.g., gaze shift and/or demonstratives in speech) to mark gestures as communicatively relevant with children vs. adults. We also show that use of the ostensive cues follows the principle of communicative efficiency! 5/6

New open-access paper with @ozyurek_a & @manucampisi5 We extend relevance theory to a multimodal view of language, demonstrating that speakers explicitly highlight iconic gestures as communicatively relevant in knowledge transmission context 🔗 tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Our new paper out now @Glossa! ✨
Across 4 languages (signed and spoken), we show that feedback is dominated by non-manual signals (head movements, facial gestures). Verbal/manual feedback is not central. Time for a multimodal reconceptualization. 🔓 glossa-journal.org/article/id/185… 💬

You can read the full chapter here: Iconicity in simultaneous constructions in sign languages | Max Planck Institute share.google/rzwFU9EpdXJbsH…

Happy to share that my chapter on Iconicity in simultaneous constructions in sign languages is finally out! academic.oup.com/edited-volume/…

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION ALERT!🚨 The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ Marcus Perlman, @glupyan, Koen de Reus & @Limor_Raviv ). Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @TrendsCognSci!

Join MOSAIC’s November Grand Challenge to explore how to annotate social interaction with ELAN, from classic methods to integrations with speech, motion and computer vision. With @anitaslonimska, @mamus_ezgi and @shoakamine1 from the MPI . 🗓 20 Nov | 15:00–16:30 GMT | Zoom

PhD Opportunity at UCL – Tactile Sign Language & DeafBlind Communication. Funded PhD at DCAL exploring tactile BSL and DeafBlind interaction. UK only. Deadline 1 Dec 2025. ucl.ac.uk/brain-sciences…

📅 16 Oct | 14:00–15:30 (GMT) | Zoom 👓 Wearable Facial Multimodal Sensing with @emteqlabs Join MOSAIC's October Grand Challenge to explore how next-gen facial worn wearables open new opportunities for studying multimodal social interaction. Reply below for zoom link

Our paper is finally out! "Deconstructing notions of morphological ‘complexity’: Lessons from creoles and sign languages" Journal of Linguistics - bit.ly/4pmru2J

Just published: Children are not the main agents of language change 🚩🚩🚩 Despite a long standing belief that acquisition errors by young kids are the source of language change, here we show that this idea is poorly supported by empirical evidence. Read: mpi.nl/publications/i…

New paper with @vkempe on potential age differences in the interpretation and conventionalization of a recently introduced semiotic system: emojis! 😍 Unlike popular belief, young & older adults mostly agree on what face emojis mean (with some exceptions): tinyurl.com/3jvjhepk

I am advertising 2 positions in language evolution with my group at @Radboud_Uni: 📢 Fully-funded PhD position (Robotics/AI 🤖) ru.nl/en/working-at/… 📢 Postdoc position (Virtual Reality 🎮) ru.nl/en/working-at/… Deadline for applications is August 14th. Please RT! :)

Our PI Tilbe Göksun was a keynote speaker at the 10th Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies! 🎉 We thank @isgs2025 for this amazing organization!