English Language

Literary forensics expert Don Foster. Named the first literary detective of all time, he uncovered the identity of Joe Klein as the Anonymous writer of 1996’s “Primary Colors”. His new book is “Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous” (Henry Holt, Inc.) which details the techniques he uses to identify writers behind anonymous books and documents. He teaches English at Vassar College.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg has some advice for Gore and Bush as they head into their third and final debate.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg has a commentary on the idea of community. A controversial recent book by Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam argues that community participation is in sharp decline in American life, but Nunberg says the word “community” is being used more frequently than ever.

Our classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz turns off the turntable and reads us a poem from his new book, Cairo Traffic.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg contemplates the finer points of punctuation.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg takes a look at the trouble the media had trying to find the words to describe vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on distinctions in grammar.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the phrase “thought leader.”

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the trend among corporate giants to change their names to create a new identity.

Assistant Managing Editor of The New York Times, Allan Siegal. He oversees usage and style at the Times. A revised and expanded edition of his “The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage” (Times Books) has just been published.

These days, there’s a lot of public concern about objectionable content on the Web. Fresh Air’s Linguist Geoff Nunberg discusses the problems with so-called “censorware”, the software programs that claim to screen out pornography and other offensive material.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the language of the stock market.

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg discusses the word hacker.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the difference between irony and sarcasm.

Senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Wallraff, and author of the magazine’s “Word Count” column. Her new book about language usage is “”Word Count: Wherein verbal virtue is rewarded, crimes against the language are punished, and poetic justice is done” (Harcourt).

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the difficulties we’re having talking about the new millennium.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the word "virtual" as In virtual reality.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers how new-age psycho-babble has made It's way Into the corporate room.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg tells us what words he would like to see us get rid of for the year 2000.

Enter Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the epic Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf" -- which is considered to be the origin of English literature and which has been newly translated by poet Seamus Heaney.