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Why Product Brand Names Don't Mean What They Used To.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the way brands are used now.

04:42
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Other segments from the episode on July 6, 1999

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, July 6, 1999: Interview with Scott Anderson; Review of Dave Douglas Quintet's album "Convergence"; Commentary on commercial brands and language.
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40:04

"The Man Who Tried to Save the World."

Scott Anderson is author of the new book "The Man Who Tried to Save the World : The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny ." (Doubleday) He talks about the life of disaster relief specialist Fred Cuny who went to war-torn regions of the world to help the people rebuild their communities. CUNY disappeared in April, 1995 while working in Chechnya. Anderson is also author of the novel "Triage" set in the Kurdish occupied region of Iraq.

Interview

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˛7

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05:31

The Linguistics of Brands

Commentator Geoff Nunberg considers brand names. They make up a significant proportion of the average person's vocabulary. Nunberg says the English language is being privatized.

Commentary
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08:38

Ironic, Informal And Expressive, 'New Rules Of Language' Evolve Online

With all our texting, tweeting and social media posting, billions of people are using typed words for the kind everyday communication that used to happen more often in conversation. A new book argues that we’ve created a unique new language to reproduce the shades of meaning that we used to convey verbally. Our linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the new rules of language that he calls chat-speak.

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