The Way We Talk Now [Hardcover]

Geoffrey Nunberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2001

This engaging collection of National Public Radio broadcasts and magazine pieces by one of America’s 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stanford linguistics professor Nunberg is well-placed to critique netiquette, computer grammar checkers and "The Software We Deserve" via his computer language research at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. In these engaging, often humorous essays, he takes digs at "emoticons" ("a string of punctuation marks suggesting a facial expression laid on its side," and, moreover, a word that "deserves to die horribly in a head-on collision with infotainment"), suggesting that Kafka might have used a "frownie" and Austen a "winkie." But many of his subjects are nontechnological, concerning everyday culture and speech. While disapproving of some contemporary grammatical lapses, Nunberg admits that some words only exist for spelling bees and tolerates certain slang. Regarding the oft-aired contention in the Ebonics debate that schools must teach the language of Shakespeare and James Baldwin, Nunberg argues somewhat sardonically that, in fact, inner-city kids must learn "to speak like kids in middle-class suburbs, so they can grow up to become competent speakers of the brutalist clatter of the American political and business worlds." During the presidential election debates, Nunberg discerned from Gore's disinclination to contract verbs that he wasn't "gonna" beat the more homespun Bush. Pondering how current language trends might sound in 50 years, he worries that his daughter Sophie will meet the dowdy fate that once awaited women named Ethel or Mildred, and disdains the trendy vocabulary borrowed from California Esalen Institute-type movements (e.g., "proactive," "prequel," "rockumentary"). Nunberg never fails to reveal some bit of history embedded in language, and, despite his occasionally stuffy responses to contemporary jargon, his acuity and fixation on funny pop-phenomena keep the book fresh.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Compiling humorous commentaries about language in the United States, Nunberg, a language and computer technology researcher and a consulting linguistics professor at Stanford, here offers essays prepared for National Public Radio's Fresh Air. Some of the many topics covered are the long-lasting linguistic impact of movies, software that checks grammar, and word histories. Likewise, politics is one of six categories in which the essays are chronologically organized. Some readers will enjoy a review of 1990s events through reading the essays in their published order, while others can skip around owing to the essays' short length and approachable tones. Another collection about language that targets a similar audience of general readers is Verbatim: From the Bawdy to the Sublime, the Best Writing on Language for Word Lovers, Grammar Mavens, and Armchair Linguists (Harcourt, 2001), edited by Erin McKean. Recommended for large public libraries and libraries in communities with a strong National Public Radio audience. Marianne Orme, Des Plaines, IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (October 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618116028
• ISBN-13: 978-0618116027
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,373,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty and Insightful, December 30, 2001

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way We Talk Now (Hardcover)

This collection of short, pithy pieces from linguist Geoffrey Nunberg's public radio broadcasts on "Fresh Air" explore a broad range of topics, from country music to the French Revolution, from teen speak through the ages to the euphemisms of all the 'isms. But mostly he explores the evolution of popular culture as revealed in the way we use words.

Humorous, witty and engaging, Nunberg's breezy pieces show a remarkable depth of research and thoughtfulness in posing such questions as why movies have given us so many memorable phrases and television so few, and how we choose names for our children. He number crunches all the words at the Republican convention into five sentences, explores the history and longevity of slang, the emotional power of words, the evolution of meanings.

Insightful and enjoyable, these soundbites help us see how language reflects us, as we are and as we prefer to see ourselves.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Witty and Insightful, December 2, 2004

By 

D. Sean West (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way We Talk Now (Paperback)

Language is how we interact and bring meaning to the world-all those things which we value we also name. This is what makes Geoffrey Nunberg's work as a linguistics professor at Stanford so interesting and it is just that fascinating field of study which he shares with us in this book. I was first introduced to Nunberg through his work on NRP's Fresh Air and this book's short essay format nicely parallel's the commentaries that he has produced there.

Casting a wide net Nunberg looks at a wide range of subjects in this book, from political speech to language of business. He not only is a keen observer of how these areas of speech are changing but also is able to penetrate to what those changes really mean about our society all with an intelligent wit.

While in the end I think I still prefer his expertly delivered NRP pieces they always leave me wanting more-and his written work is just that!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars STIMULATING, FUN, ORIGINAL STUFF!, October 23, 2001

By A Customer

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This review is from: The Way We Talk Now (Paperback)

I've long been a fan of Geoff Nunberg's pieces on NPR's "Fresh Air," and even so was surprised at how delightful it was to sit down and read them, collected, in order of appearance. Each piece feels as fresh as the day it aired. I have friends who have for years gotten Nunberg's pieces off the net to read aloud at their monthly dinners--this collection is a gold mine for them. Fun, challenging, stimulating stuff. Hugely recommended.