Betsy Sneller

@betsysneller.bsky.social

2587 Followers 323 Following

Asst prof linguistics @ Michigan state. I like cats, fiber arts, people. I’ll finish the rest of this later.

A pumpkin plant growing at the foot of our front steps. A single yellow flower poking through the middle shows we’ll get at least one pumpkin this fall!
Tan yarn wrapped around a niddy noddy (a tool for winding plied yarn from a spindle so I can wet finish it)
A pink tulip
Chat history. The only entry says "how the fuck do i disable copilot"
Yellow sunflower covered in snow
A sign on my hotel shower: “Webers dazzling shower and musical mirror” (the shower was normal, the mirror has speakers that can pair w Bluetooth)
Slide showing how RR did a hyperadaption of prestige forms in 2009 - just as she comes under scrutiny by other members of her party
Plot showing the effect of addressee gender and “rank” (friend, sibling, partner, stranger), comparing 2004 (solid lines) and 2023 (dashed lines)
Dude originally an insult derived from “yankee doodle dandy”
Plot showing speakers’ PVI by number of social network groupings. 3 and 4 groupings = higher PVI than 2 groups of friends
Bathroom graffiti that says “want to have hot sex?” With a cartoon of a penis. Someone else wrote “No!”
A small zebra stuffy sitting on the couch
A small tiger stuffy sitting on the couch
A small giraffe stuffy sitting on the couch
A small hippopotamus stuffy sitting on the couch
A small leopard stuffy sitting on a couch
A bee on a purple coneflower
A moth on some rudbeckia (black eyed Susan)
Some huge bee (carpenter???) on a bright pink bee balm flower
Carpenter bee (I think) asleep in the middle of some pink phlox
A big ole bee (bumble? Carpenter? I’m not sure) on a marigold
Screen shot of a Washington post social media post with the quote “it’s redefining how you can be in [a] community” (About a group of people in Washington DC that walk around while listening to audio books together)
Examples of starting “small” - even a small start has big impacts
Slide saying: Lessons learned while working on two different field projects * know your intention and purpose of the research but be flexible * communities define things differently … be open to understanding those community dynamics * do not underestimate your network or the power of social media / social connections * be okay talking to strangers. Know enough to start a conversation * have some questions but do not have all the answers. .. for your research and interviews/surveys * find someone who is already in the community before you start your work
Annette presenting on Zoom “the Chicagoland language project: insights on neighborhood studies in sociolinguistics”
Robin talking about network structure
Charlie in front of a graph showing a sine wave shaped plot of dialect density measure: kids get a lil more standard in grades 1-4, then more vernacular in grades 5-10, then more standard again
Sabriya and Nicole sharing some of the outcomes of their research
A dried cilantro growing in the crack between the driveway and the house
A black and white image of a young man in a striped t-shirt, looking off to the right. Maybe he's on a boat?
A firefly resting on some catnip
A bumblebee flying around a bright pink bee balm flower
A garden in the easement (the lawn between the sidewalk and the street). There’s a path of woodchips through the middle, with a little herb garden in front and flowers in the back
A tint sweet pea pod pushing out under the pea blossom
Viewpoint from my 2nd floor window, showing a hole in the street right in front of my house (and my car subsequently trapped in our driveway for a couple of hours)
An email from Bill saying "Hi Betsy, If you think the wording on the poster is right, I'd appreciate it if you would send it back to me. I'd like to send it around to a good number of people, including members of our department. I'll send you a copy of my list, so we don't overlap too much. Bill"
Two lilac blooms with some leaves in a white vase
A silly cartoon of two popes having an altercation. It’s not actually showing them fighting because I have no idea how to draw a physical fight, so this captures the moment just before the fight begins
A cartoon of me, very complimentary. Marker on paper.
A broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl
Road crew outside my driveway - one big hole just in front of my driveway.
A doll in a high chair with 3 bottles, 1 fake yogurt and 1 fake snack cup crowded on the table in front of her. Behind her are two more bottles, a spoon and some fake peas lined up very neatly.
A big pink scribble on butcher paper, with a yellow flower sticker at the top
A sketch of two butterflies holding beer steins
A stick figure skiing on a cat who is trying to nap
Image of a van with the words "Angie's van fundraiser. Help our unhoused neighbor buy a van! Write "van" in details of donation!" with a cashapp for Angie ($sassymae300), and venmo for our neighbor Jordan who is organizing (@twinofyourself) and paypal for Syd who is also organizing (@sydneymoyer).
Betsy in her gown surrounded by friends in various levels of fancy dress, some of whom were literally manning the wood burning boil down station all day 🥰
Rx bar. Ingredients say 3 egg whites 6 almonds 5 cashews 2 dates
Betsy in a gown and blingy earrings
Betsy holding up her middle finger which is bandaged with gauze and medical tape
A glass of beer in a Harry’s Place glass with sweet potato tots in the foreground
Windmill restaurant downtown Holland Michigan. It's cute and small.
Betsy holding a 9 month old baby in a tiny Dutch costume (yes, the coolest kind with the starched hats) in a tulip field in front of our windmill
Betsy (center) waving, wearing a girl Dutch costume that she borrowed from a friend and her own klompen (wooden shoes) during a Tulip Time parade. She's surrounded by high school friends also in Dutch costumes.
A flyer advertising this research project. The top says "Offensiveness of Insults". The text says: If you are: 18 years old or older AND a native speaker of American English, please consider taking my short survey (3-5 minutes)! Your responses will inform my senior thesis research on whether certain words have changed in their "offensiveness" over time. You will be asked to rate a series of words on how offensive they are in a given context. No identifying information will be collected. Scan the QR code or visit: https://msu.col.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bNuepJFVM3ocUXc Thank you for your help!
A sketch of CJ dancing delighted in the subzero snowstorm
A graph showing the proportion of sentences that include "do" for different sentence types: Affirmative declarative ("I do like cats") in red, Affirmative questions ("Do you like cats?") in blue, Negative declarative ("I do not like cats") in green, Negative imperative ("Do not do that") in purple, and Negative questions ("Do you not like cats?") in orange. The red shows an increase in do-support in the 1500-1600s, and then goes away again around the 1700s which gives us our current form "I like cats" in modern English, without the "do".
A picture of my jury summons saying to return the questionnaire to a specific address the paper is torn over the last two digits of the zip code so I can’t read it.