Geoffrey Nunberg (June 1, 1945– August 11, 2020) was an American lexical semantician and author. In 2001, he received the Linguistics, Language, and the Public Interest Award from the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

for his contributions to National Public Radio's ''Fresh Air''. Nunberg was the author of a number of popular books, among them '' Going Nucular: Language, Politics and Culture in Controversial Times'' (2004). He is primarily known for his broadcast work interpreting linguistic science for lay audiences, though his contributions to linguistic theory are also well regarded. Nunberg received his doctorate from the

Graduate Center of the City University of New York The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University ...

in 1977 for his dissertation, ''The Pragmatics of Reference''. Prior to his PhD, Nunberg received a Bachelor's degree from Columbia College and a master's degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

where he studied under

William Labov William David Labov ( ; December4, 1927December17, 2024) was an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has ...

. Following his education, Nunberg began working as a postdoctoral scholar at the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

and visiting professor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. In the mid-1980s he moved to the

Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

where he worked until 2001. Following Xerox, he returned to research at universities, returning to appointments at Stanford's Center for the Study of Language and Information and at Berkeley's School of Information. Following a long battle with cancer, Nunberg died August 11, 2020.

Life

Nunberg was born in 1945 to his mother, a high school teacher, and his father, a commercial real estate worker. He grew up in the suburbs of New York City, and as a teenager he was attracted to the growing

beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti- materialistic lifestyle. They rejected the conformity and consumerism of mainstream American culture and expressed themselves through various forms ...

scene in nearby Greenwich Village. He graduated from Quaker Ridge Junior High School (Scarsdale, NY)in 1958, and from Scarsdale High School in 1962, and then attended

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, but left to pursue an art degree at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

. While in art school, he began writing as a side project but eventually left art school to re-enroll at Columbia from where he ultimately received his Bachelor's degree.

Interests and writing

Geoffrey Nunberg and Juliette Powell in 2012

As a linguist, he is best known for his work on

lexical semantics Lexical semantics (also known as lexicosemantics), as a subfield of linguistics, linguistic semantics, is the study of word meanings.Pustejovsky, J. (2005) Lexical Semantics: Overview' in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, second edition, V ...

, in particular on the phenomena of

polysemy Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a Sign (semiotics), sign (e.g. a symbol, morpheme, word, or phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. Polysemy is distinct from ''monosemy'', where a word h ...

, deferred reference and

indexicality In semiotics, linguistics, anthropology, and philosophy of language, indexicality is the phenomenon of a ''Sign (semiotics), sign'' pointing to (or ''indexing'') some element in the context (language use), context in which it occurs. A sign that si ...

. He also wrote extensively about the cultural and social implications of new technologies. Nunberg's criticisms of the

metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...

of Google Books ignited a widespread controversy among librarians and scholars. Nunberg was a frequent contributor to the collective blog '' Language Log''. Nunberg commented on language, usage, and society for

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's ''

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's hosts are Terry Gross and Tonya Mosl ...

'' program since 1988. His commentaries on language also appeared frequently in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' and other publications. He was the emeritus chair of the ''

American Heritage Dictionary American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

'' usage panel. His books for general audiences include '' The Way We Talk Now: Commentaries on Language and Culture from NPR's Fresh Air'', '' Going : Language, Politics, and Culture in Controversial Times,'' '' Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show'', and '' The Years of Talking Dangerously'' (2009). He's one of the contributors to ''

The Cambridge grammar of the English language ''The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language'' (''CamGEL''The abbreviation ''CamGEL'' is less commonly used for the work than is ''CGEL'' (and the authors themselves use ''CGEL'' in their other works), but ''CGEL'' is ambiguous because it has ...

''. His last book, '' Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years'', was published in August 2012. The critic Malcolm Jones described Nunberg's method in that book as follows: "His means of studying the problem is utterly fresh: take a word, and the attitudes behind it and see where they came from and what they might say about us."

References

External links

Nunberg's website''The Persistence of English''
��an essay by Nunberg regarding the diversity and unity of the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

through its history (PDF)
''Wikipedia: Blessing or Curse?''
''Fresh Air'' commentary, June 5, 2007 (audio)

''Fresh Air'' commentary, June 5, 2007 (transcript) *Alex Soojung-Kim Pang: (2006) *
Google Books: The Metadata Mess
a slide presentation from the Google Book Settlement Conf at UC Berkeley on 28 August 2009
Google's Book Search: A Disaster for Scholars
article in The Chronicle of Higher Education
Counting on Google Books
article in The Chronicle of Higher Education {{DEFAULTSORT:Nunberg, Geoffrey 1945 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American linguists 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American linguists Writers from New York City American sociolinguists Semanticists University of California, Berkeley faculty Stanford University Department of Linguistics faculty Scientists at PARC (company) American male non-fiction writers Columbia College (New York) alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni CUNY Graduate Center alumni