David Griffin

Hello new followers! I am a lawyer with a PhD in linguistics who is particularly interested in the language of pseudo-authority and conspiracy theories. In addition to discussing work in that subject area, I also post more personal musings and the occasional dog photo.

2026 BAAL CL SIG Symposium and AGM Announcement! Our yearly symposium will be taking place online on Monday 14 December from 9:15 to 16:30 GMT, with the AGM taking place at the conclusion of the day's scheduled talks. Attendance is free! You can sign up at the link below:

Next Thurs! Join Harry Hobbs in conversation with me with all you need to know about freemen of the land, sovereign citizens, non-payment of council tax, conspiracy theories, the flood of AI generated pseudolaw and more! DM for more info or click the link below! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

Many, many thanks to the friend who just sent me this! After reading it, the only question I am left with is not "will I eventually cite this" but rather "how often will I cite this?" @drjoemcintyre.bsky.social @leader-kate.bsky.social Does this count as pseudolaw?

(Sharing on behalf of Teba Naqash, event organizer and current PhD student at the University of Leeds) This seems like a great (and free!) event for PGRs interested in learning more about corpus linguistics! The event runs 9:30-14:00 BST on 27 July; registration is via the QR code in the image.

Joseph Weizenbaum's 1976 book, Computer Power and Human Reason, has long been out of print - used copies sell for hundreds of dollars. It's wild that this is not more widely available given how much his ideas still apply to the world we're in now. 🧵/

So cool to see my work with @danaroemling.bsky.social mentioned as part of "Forensic Linguistics in the United Kingdom"! Thanks to @ralphmortonlang.bsky.social, @emchiang.bsky.social, and Malcolm Coulthard for including us, and shout-out to our paragraph neighbor @lucia-busso.bsky.social.

🚨 ***Pseudolaw Conference Alert*** There is still time to register for this amazing conference hosted by @leader-kate.bsky.social @linguistlawyer.com and myself at Queen Mary, London on Thursday & Friday this week The program and details are all available at pseudolaw.org/events/

Registration is now open for next month's Conspiracy Theories & Pseudolaw conference on 18 and 19 June. Both online and in-person atteance are free and the event will also be the official launch of @pseudolaw.org! The program is below and you can register at: tinyurl.com/55yrx627 See you there!

Pseudolaw sometimes involves real law, so sometimes the best cases to explain why a real legal dispute ends up with an outcome are cases about pseudolaw. Yes, this is a Meads v Meads thingie. I discuss a land access dispute example here: www.reddit.com/r/amibeingde... And here's the key part.

Meet the academics refusing to use generative AI Researchers say they have their reasons for avoiding AI tools — and they’re sick of arguing about it. www.nature.com/articles/d41... h/t @maartenp.bsky.social

aifl-blog.com/an-introduct... highly recommend checking out the fascinating (and magical!) new post on the AIFL blog today from David Griffin (@linguistlawyer.com) and Gordon Reynolds

A momentous achievement on the home front today: just a bit more than three months after we moved to Yorkshire, we have officially unpacked our last box! Still lots to do but the place is really starting to feel like it's ours at this point.

If you missed this talk (or just want to relive it!), it's now available to watch on @aifl.bsky.social's YouTube channel at the link below: www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5t6...

Call For Papers: Conspiracy Theories and Pseudolaw Conference 📅 Friday 19 June 2026 📍 Lincoln's Inns Fields, Queen Mary, University of London tinyurl.com/5bwhur6v Please email your submission (max 300 words) to k.leader@qmul.ac.uk by 28 February 2026. Please share.

Did you know we have a mailing list for the discussion of all maters related to corpus linguistics and SIG events? Sign up now to stay in the loop about our upcoming elections and AGM! You can do so yourself at www.jiscmail.ac.uk (search for BAAL-CORPUS-SIG) or just email david@linguistlawyer.com.

"A core principle behind the founding of the United States is 'No Kings.'...250 years into our independent nationhood, Trump either believes or pretends he can do anything he wants, unaccountable to any earthly authority." @jilldlawrence.bsky.social on today's protests www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Come join us on the BAAL Corpus SIG! And don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Just over one week left to submit an abstract for our upcoming event, "AI and EAP: New Directions" hosted by Coventry University! You can view the call for papers and register to attend on 15 December at the link below:

I'm once again thinking about how great it must have been to be a linguist in the 60s. You could just say stuff! The amount of people who got away with what is essentially "It is doubtless true that..." followed by an unevidenced claim and are still widely cited today is staggering.

I absolutely love this! It's like they took my PhD thesis and turned it into an art project. I'll be referencing Heavyweight in future language and law classes and talks I give about legal semiotics; you can generate your own legal-seeming letters at heavyweight.cc. Amazing stuff!

Coming up on 29 July: I'm excited to present a keynote as part of AASTMT's symposium on "Forensic Linguistics across Legal, Digital and Public Discourses"! I'll be discussing what makes data "legal" and why that status does (or sometimes doesn't) matter. It'll be a fun day; come along if you can!

I'm now on LinkedIn! If you'd like, you can connect with me there at www.linkedin.com/in/david-griffin-b94571375.

I had a blast talking to Robbie for this! Check it out to learn about my research interests and my forensic linguistics origin story. And thanks again to @aifl.bsky.social for having me!

That's it from me at #CL2025 this week! I had a blast. See everyone in two years!

This afternoon at #CL2025: Annina Van Riper on "Linguistic mechanisms of trust in the Pick-Up artist community: a multidimensional analysis". There are some interesting parallels here between PUAs and Sovereign Citizen "gurus"!

@debbiecabral.bsky.social leads us through her approach to dealing with issues of relevance and dispersion in corpus analysis as the BAAL Corpus SIG panel continues #CL2025

Siân Alsop opens the BAAL Corpus SIG panel on "Methodological innovation in applied corpus linguistics" by explaining her work on the Children's Storybook Corpus. Next up @debbiecabral.bsky.social and then me! #CL2025

And we're off! @robbielove.org opens #CL2025 on what is looking to be a sweltering day in Birmingham

Seeking participants! An MA student I am supervising is looking for speakers of English to answer a few survery questions for her dissertation. You can find out more and participate at this link: mailchi.mp/6fcd7c955006... Please share and sign up if you can!

New research from MIT found that those who used ChatGPT can’t remember any of the content of their essays. Key takeaway: the product doesn’t suffer, but the process does. And when it comes to essays, the process *is* how they learn. arxiv.org/pdf/2506.088...

The amazing @empowell.bsky.social has a new monograph out today about the language of mass shooter manifestos. I've been following Emily's work since we did our PhDs together and highly recommend anyone interested in the topic check it out. www.routledge.com/The-Language...

i can’t get enough of the chicago pope jokes

I'm very much looking forward to serving as the next treasurer of the International Association for Forensic & Legal Linguistics! It'll be great to contribute to the continued development of @iafll.bsky.social which, as I've said before, has always felt like my "home" organization.

Wow Chicago! #HandsOff #FiftyFiftyOne (🎥 Marco Foster)

There are trans Americans right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am. We are. We will.