Journalism

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg, unhappy with his job description, tries on a few other possibilities while dissecting the very notion of a "language commentator."

Maureen Corrigan has regularly read the Sunday New York Times wedding announcements. She says the kind of information that's printed -- and the kinds of couples who are highlighted might say as much about the paper's editorial slant as much as it does the current state of marriage.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg discusses the way the language of the drug culture has worked through the language of the mainstream.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg says that, regardless of the language they're written in, newspaper headlines demand a mastery of colloquialisms and pre-existing knowledge of current events--making them difficult for non-native speakers to comprehend.