Synopses & Reviews
This engaging collection of National Public Radio broadcasts and magazine pieces by one of America& #39; s best-known linguists covers the waterfront of contemporary culture by taking stock of its words and phrases. From our metaphors for the Internet (& quot; Virtual Rialto& quot; ) to the perils of electronic grammar checkers (& quot; The Software We Deserve& quot; ), from traditional grammatical bugaboos (& quot; Sex and the Singular Verb& quot; ) to the ways we talk about illicit love (& quot; Affairs of State& quot; ), Geoffrey Nunberg shows just how much the language we use from day to day reveals about who we are and who we want to be.
Review
"Most occasional pieces lose their freshness in hard covers, but Geoffrey Nunberg's commentaries on language…are a happy exception."
Review
"Never fails to reveal…history embedded in language…his acuity and fixation on funny pop-phenomena keep the book fresh."
Review
"Nunberg . . . discusses usage and its abuses in brief, delightful essays."
Review
[A] lighthearted but pithy analysis of the changing ways Americans talk and write."
Review
"Nunberg offers homages and brickbats to the popular culture, especially as it is spoken and written."
Review
"In a chatty, accessible style, he takes American catchwords and colloquialisms and turns them into signifiers of shared experience." Philadelphia City Paper
"Most occasional pieces lose their freshness in hard covers, but Geoffrey Nunberg's commentaries on language
are a happy exception." Boston Globe
"Nunberg offers homages and brickbats to the popular culture, especially as it is spoken and written." Kirkus Reviews
"Never fails to reveal
history embedded in language
his acuity and fixation on funny pop-phenomena keep the book fresh." Publishers Weekly
"Humorous commentaries about language in the United States." Library Journal
"Nunberg . . . discusses usage and its abuses in brief, delightful essays." Minneapolis Star-Tribune
[A] lighthearted but pithy analysis of the changing ways Americans talk and write." Columbus Dispatch
"Contains [Nunberg's] ruminations on the strange twists and turns of English as spoken in America." Columbus Dispatch
Synopsis
This engaging collection of National Public Radio broadcasts and magazine pieces by one of Americas best-known linguists covers the waterfront of contemporary culture by taking stock of its words and phrases. From our metaphors for the Internet (Virtual Rialto”) to the perils of electronic grammar checkers (The Software We Deserve”), from traditional grammatical bugaboos (Sex and the Singular Verb”) to the ways we talk about illicit love (Affairs of State”), Geoffrey Nunberg shows just how much the language we use from day to day reveals about who we are and who we want to be.
About the Author
Geoffrey Nunberg is a principal scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and a consulting professor in the Department of Linguistics at Stanford University. He is also chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. He has published many articles in the scholarly and popular press and made numerous radio broadcasts on language and linguistics, the cultural implications of digital technologies, and language policy issues. For this work, he was given the 2001 Language, Linguistics, and the Public Interest Award by the Linguistic Society of America.
Table of Contents
Contents
vii Preface
The Passing Scene
3 The Choice of Sophie {1989}
6 Vietnamese for Travelers {1989}
8 You Know {1992}
11 Yesss, Indeed! {1995}
13 Look-See {1994}
16 The N-Word {1995}
18 Some Pig! {1995}
20 A Few of My Favorite Words {1995}
23 Rex Ipse {1995}
26 An Interjection for the Age {1997}
29 The Last Post {1997}
32 As a Cigarette Should {1997}
35 Go Figure {1998}
38 The Past Is Another Country {1998}
41 Yadda Yadda Doo {1998}
44 Gen Z and Counting {1999}
47 Wordplay in the Country {1999}
50 Turn-of-the-Century {2000}
Word Histories
55 Hoosiers {1989}
58 Easy on the Zeal {1992}
61 The Decline of Slang {1992}
64 The Last Galoot {1992}
66 Über and Out {1993}
69 The Burbs {1995}
73 Rebirth of the Cool {1996}
76 Remembering Ned Ludd {1996}
79 Paparazzo and Friends {1997}
82 The Cult Quotient {1997}
85 Portmanteau Words {1999}
88 Ten Suffixes That Changed the World {1999}
91 The Edge {2000}
94 No Picnic {2000}
97 Community Sting {2000}
Politics of the English Language
103 Force and Violence {1990}
106 Eastern Questions {1991}
109 A Suffix in the Sand {1991}
112 PC {1991}
115 Party Down {1996}
118 Standard Issue {1997}
122 Group Grope {1998}
125 The Jewish Question {2000}
128 Only Contract {2000}
131 Chad Row {2000}
The Two R'S
137 I Put a Spell on You {1990}
140 Naming of Parts {1994}
143 Reading for the Plot {1994}
146 Split Decision {1995}
149 Sex and the Singular Verb {1996}
151 Verbed Off {1997}
154 Hell in a Handcar {1999}
157 Distinctions {2000}
160 Points in Your Favor {2000}
163 Shall Game {2001}
166 Literacy Literacy {2001}
Technical Terms
173 The Dactyls of October {1995}
176 Virtual Rialto {1995}
178 The Talking Gambit {1997}
181 Lost in Space {1997}
184 A Wink is As Good As a Nod {1997}
187 How the Web Was Won {1998}
190 The Software We Deserve {1998}
193 Have It My Way {1998}
195 The Writing on the Walls {1999}
198 Its Own Reward {2000}
201 Hackers {2000}
Business Talk
207 You're Out of Here {1996}
210 Whaddya Know? {1998}
213 Slides Rule {1999}
216 Come Together, Right Now {1999}
220 It's the Thought That Matters {2000}
223 A Name Too Far {2000}
226 Having Issues {2000}
Valediction
231 Pack It In! {1999}