Geoffrey Nunberg

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg considers how electronic communication like telephone conversations and radio broadcasts have changed the ways we introduce ourselves.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg says that dictionaries remove words and their meanings from any sort of context, which makes them inefficient tools for students seeking to expand their vocabularies. But dictionaries can reveal a lot about simple words, which are often the hardest to define.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg considers the commonalities between different proverbs from around the world.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg reflects on how changing modes of speech in motion pictures signify a character's personal transformation. The 1938 version of Pygmalion is a great example -- but the trope can be found in several other films.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg talks about the game "settings," wherein players pair poems with complimentary pieces of music. The goal is to find works whose rhythm and meter sync up.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg wonders why it's so hard for writers to craft realistic, natural-sounding dialogue when we are surrounded by speech in our daily lives. He says it may take a special kind of attentiveness to hear -- and remember -- how people really talk.

Language commentator recalls how he learned Italian by watching dubbed American movies while studying abroad, and considers why Italian filmgoers prefer dubbing over subtitles.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg on shibboleths, those subtle points of grammar and usage that linguists' consider vital but which most people have never heard of.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg looks back at the tradition of American political oratory. Debates and speeches drew crowds by the thousands in the 19th century., but television has reduced much of that discourse to soundbites. The rare moments in which we can hear a speech in full remind us of how much fun politics must have been in the past, says Nunberg.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg wonders about the demand for authentic regional and national accents in motion pictures -- even when its not essential to the plot.