Language

A linguistic perspective on when an apology is not an apology.

The 2006 award season is drawing to a close and linguist Geoff Nunberg gets in just under the wire with the announcement of the first annual Becky award, bestowed by a group of linguists.

The end of the year brings with it "word of the year" designations from professional societies and dictionaries. Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers some of the words that made headlines this past year, including some newsmaking racial epithets.

The election results didn't just reshuffle the Congress -- they also got people debating the meanings of the labels people use to map out the political spectrum. Our linguist Geoff Nunberg has been thinking about what's in a label.

Geoff Nunberg discusses the difference between progressives and liberals.

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg considers how we talk about torture.

How do you draw the line between dramatic license and historical accuracy? That was the essence of the controversy over the recent ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11, just as it was a few years ago with the CBS miniseries that put words in Ronald Reagan's mouth that he never uttered. Docudrama may be a new word, but it raises old questions about truth and fiction.

Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein was appointed to his post in 2002. Previously, he was senior legislative aide to Sen. Tom Daschle.

Tim Winter is executive director of the Parents Television Council (PTC). Last week, the PTC filed an indecency complaint with the FCC over the NBC broadcast of the Emmy Awards because of language used by actresses Helen Mirren and Calista Flockhart.

Attorney Stephen Weiswasser advises stations on what material may be deemed indecent. He is a partner in law of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. He says the FCC guidelines are difficult to interpret.