Assistant professor at Yale Linguistics. Studying computational linguistics, cognitive science, and AI. He/him.https://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3mhgrkt7bnk24Scientific American has a piece today on NACLO (the linguistics competition) by @dodecalemma.bsky.social! Features some quotes and puzzles by yours truly! [contains quote post or other embedded content]19 Mar 2026 19:50 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhgrkt7bnk24https://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3mgiixovxws2hWhat's the endgame for people who mass-email conference organizers saying that they'd like to review papers? I've gotten several such requests in the past few months07 Mar 2026 18:56 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgiixovxws2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3meihexolys2wI could use an emergency reviewer for an ACL submission involving interpretability and syntax. Please DM me if you might be able to provide an emergency review before February 15!10 Feb 2026 07:38 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3meihexolys2whttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3me544vacp22jI like the three consecutive dots in the word "hijinks". They're like an ellipsis telling you that the hijinks will continue.05 Feb 2026 19:17 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3me544vacp22jhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3mdnre6j5c22fI'm excited to be speaking at Carnegie Mellon today - it's where I got my start as a researcher (a summer job making a finite-state morphological analyzer for Kinyarwanda), and it's fun to be back! Say hi if you're around! https://www.lti.cs.cmu.edu/misc-pages/lti-colloquium.html30 Jan 2026 16:54 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3mdnre6j5c22fhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3maeoj2xjis26🚨Calling all fans of analyzing neural networks: There will be a workshop at Yale in the spring that you should come to! (May 11 to May 13) [contains quote post or other embedded content]19 Dec 2025 21:54 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3maeoj2xjis26https://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3ma6zymer7c2aThese products flagrantly violate the rules of English compounds! "Reese's Oreo" should be a type of Oreo, not a type of Reese's!17 Dec 2025 16:03 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3ma6zymer7c2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3ma2vknjzfs2lCongratulations to all of the new ACL fellows!! I'm delighted to see @lorislevin.bsky.social recognized. She's the person who introduced me to computational linguistics, and my scientific outlook has been deeply shaped by her views on the relationship between linguistics & NLP. 1/n [contains quote post or other embedded content]16 Dec 2025 00:33 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3ma2vknjzfs2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m7we2myzts26A fantastic department - highly recommend applying! [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 Dec 2025 05:09 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7we2myzts26https://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m7ut5q5vhk25Me giving my account number to a customer service rep: "That's 2 as in twenty-three, 7 as in seven hundred six, 1 as in fourteen, 1 as in fourteen, 0 as in...well...uh..."13 Dec 2025 14:34 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7ut5q5vhk25https://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m5wl22aks22jStill waiting for Google to release Ge (the large version of Gemini)18 Nov 2025 20:24 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5wl22aks22jhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m5w3sykvfc2kCome be my colleague! The Yale Dept of Linguistics is hiring a 3-year Lecturer in Historical Linguistics. There's a great group here working on language change, and you could become part of it! Application review begins Dec 14. For more info, see apply.interfolio.com/177395 https://apply.interfolio.com/17739518 Nov 2025 15:52 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5w3sykvfc2khttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m5uhpjtuc22lDo any languages have different forms of "and" for different phrase types? English uses "and" no matter what's being joined: "bread and butter" (nouns), "divide and conquer" (verbs), "short and sweet" (adjs). Are there languages that vary the conjunction across these contexts?18 Nov 2025 00:19 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5uhpjtuc22lhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m5m4nkopk22y🤖🧠I'll be considering applications for PhD students & postdocs to start at Yale in Fall 2026! If you are interested in the intersection of linguistics, cognitive science, & AI, I encourage you to apply! PhD link: https://rtmccoy.com/prospective_students_and_postdocs/ Postdoc link: https://rtmccoy.com/prospective_postdocs/14 Nov 2025 16:40 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5m4nkopk22yhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m4mak2jdns2hAn exciting postdoc opportunity for researchers in CogSci! The deadline is coming up soon: Nov 10 [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Nov 2025 00:24 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4mak2jdns2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m4ma4gssjk2hCome be my colleague! The Wu Tsai Institute at Yale has two faculty searches ongoing: - One in computational cognitive science (due Dec 1) - One in neurodevelopment (rolling) 🧠🤖 [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Nov 2025 00:17 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4ma4gssjk2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m2uwbj3e4s2gMuch as "cupboard" is pronounced "cubberd", I think that "clipboard" should be pronounced "clibberd"11 Oct 2025 00:24 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m2uwbj3e4s2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m2i3ex2usc22Beginning a Grand Tour of California! - Oct 6: Colloquium at Berkeley Linguistics - Oct 9: Workshop at Google Mountain View - Oct 14: Talk at UC Irvine Center for Lg, Intelligence & Computation - Oct 16: NLP / Text-as-Data talk at NYU Say hi if you'll be around!05 Oct 2025 21:51 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m2i3ex2usc22https://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3m22surctgk2f🤖 🧠 NEW BLOG POST 🧠 🤖 What skills do you need to be a successful researcher? The list seems long: collaborating, writing, presenting, reviewing, etc But I argue that many of these skills can be unified under a single overarching ability: theory of mind https://rtmccoy.com/posts/theory_of_mind.html30 Sep 2025 15:14 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m22surctgk2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3lxq6o67ags2j"Hello world!" sounds like a word followed by a crossword clue for that word: "Hell = Low world"31 Aug 2025 22:55 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lxq6o67ags2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3lx5xdtp6as2tA linguistic note about David Copperfield and Demon Copperhead 🧵 [very minor spoilers for both] 1/n24 Aug 2025 16:56 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lx5xdtp6as2thttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3lwhbingzzc2x🤖 🧠 NEW PAPER ON COGSCI & AI 🧠 🤖 Recent neural networks capture properties long thought to require symbols: compositionality, productivity, rapid learning So what role should symbols play in theories of the mind? For our answer...read on! Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05776 1/n15 Aug 2025 16:27 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lwhbingzzc2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3lvj2wtrt2224According to Jane Austen, linguists are extraordinarily cold-hearted. (Though at least we're not as bad as mathematicians!)03 Aug 2025 16:10 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvj2wtrt2224https://bsky.app/profile/rtommccoy.bsky.social/post/3lu3ty64wnc25So much research is being done about LLMs that it's hard to stay on top of the literature. To help with this, I've made a list of all the most important papers from the past 8 years: rtmccoy.com/pubs/ I hope you enjoy! https://rtmccoy.com/pubs/16 Jul 2025 16:35 +0000at://did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lu3ty64wnc25