Jumbly Grindrod

Associate Professor in Philosophy

University of Reading · PhilPeople · Google Scholar · ORCID

I am an associate professor in philosophy at the University of Reading. My primary research interests lie in philosophy of language and AI - specifically language model technology. I am happy to supervise doctoral students on these topics and would welcome expressions of interest.

Before making a turn towards AI, my research interests were in philosophy of language and epistemology, particularly concerning questions of context-sensitivity.

Publications

2026

Distributional Semantics, Holism, and the Instability of Meaning

With J.D. Porter & N. Hansen. In Communicating with AI: Philosophical Perspectives. Oxford University Press.

doi.org/10.1093/9780191998317.003.0004

Modelling Language using Large Language Models

Philosophical Studies 183, 1295–1315

doi:10.1007/s11098-026-02479-0

Transformers, Contextualism, and Polysemy

Ergo 13(4)

https://doi.org/10.3998/ergo.9261

2025

Computational Beliefs

Inquiry, 68(10)

doi:10.1080/0020174X.2019.1688178

2024

Large Language Models and Linguistic Intentionality

Synthese 204, 71

doi:10.1007/s11229-024-04723-8

Justification: Insights from Corpora

Episteme 21(3), 794–818

doi:10.1017/epi.2022.44

University of Reading Early Career Research Output Prize

2023

Distributional Theories of Meaning: Experimental Philosophy of Language

In Experimental Philosophy of Language. Springer.

Preprint

A Defence of Conceptual Analysis as a Linguistic Endeavour

Theoria 89(4), 516–534

doi:10.1111/theo.12477

Anti-skepticism under a Linguistic Guise

Topoi (special issue)

doi:10.1007/s11245-022-09850-w

2022

Epistemic Standards and Value: A Puzzle

Logos and Episteme 13(3), 265–272

PhilPapers

2020

Wrongful Ways to Raise the Epistemic Standard

Episteme 19(3), 455–469

doi:10.1017/epi.2020.39

The Dizzying Turn of Epistemic Contextualism

Metaphilosophy 51, 87–96

doi:10.1111/meta.12406

2019

Depth, Value, and Context

Ergo 6(24)

doi:10.3998/ergo.12405314.0006.024

Third Person Knowledge Ascriptions: A Crucial Experiment for Contextualism

With J. Andow & N. Hansen. Mind & Language 34(2), 158–182

doi:10.1111/mila.12196

Questions Under Discussion and the Semantics/Pragmatics Divide

With E. Borg. The Philosophical Quarterly 69(275), 418–426

doi:10.1093/pq/pqy058

Reviews

Review of Living Words: Meaning Underdetermination and the Dynamic Lexicon by Peter Ludlow

Philosophy in Review 35(1), 2015, 32–34

Review of What is Said and What is Not, eds. Penco & Domaneschi

Disputatio VII, 2015, 85–92