Geoff nunberg biography of alberta

By Denise Simard. Noah Berger photo. He was He also studied and wrote about the social and cultural implications of new technologies. His short pieces for NPR, delivered with his trademark sly and playful tone, managed to showcase highbrow issues of language and usage and make them approachable for the casual listener. He also loved teaching and, according to his younger sister, Barbara Nunberg, thought of the I School as home, because it embraced all of the various facets of his work.

After becoming an on-air contributor to NPR in , Nunberg became popular for his commentaries on language.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg. He discusses

Photo courtesy the Nunberg family. Nunberg was an expert witness for trademark cases and other legal matters involving linguistics. Ben Zimmer, language columnist for the Wall Street Journal , said that Nunberg was always ahead of the curve. In addition to his NPR commentaries, Nunberg shared his love of language through books and articles.

He also served as emeritus chair of the usage panel of the American Heritage Dictionary and has authored or co-authored many scholarly articles on linguistics and computational linguistics. Born in New York in , he was raised in Manhattan. His mother was a high school teacher, his father a commercial real estate broker. He received his Ph.

He spoke flawless Italian, as well as French, German and Spanish.