Barbara Gordon Lecture Series in Linguistics, 2007
Presents
By Geoffrey Nunberg of UC Berkeley and Stanford University
Tuesday, March 6, 2007, 5:00pm in GC 243
There is a paradox in modern attitudes about political language. Left and right may disagree as to which expressions count as deceptive packaging and which is merely effective branding, but both sides acknowledge that the American public is particularly susceptible to linguistic manipulation. Yet, it is fair to say that there has never been an age that was so wary of the mischief that language can work or so alert to the dangers of political euphemism and indirection. How did we come to this point? Are political and public figures really more mendacious than they used to be, or does it reflect a changing media role or an increasingly polarized political climate? Why is widespread sophistication no impediment to the misleading use of language, and why do many of the most successful linguistic maneuvers pass our radar undetected?
Light refreshments will be served after the talk.
Over the course of the last century, “philology” has gone from the name of a central critical method in the humanities to an old-fashioned name for historical linguistics. But, the advent of extensive online corpora, both historical and contemporary, promises to give new life to the philological enterprise. We can track the origin and development of words more accurately, rapidly, and in greater detail than was ever conceivable before and capture nuances of meaning that we could previously talk about only impressionistically. In this talk, I’ll review this material and revisit some of the forgotten theoretical issues it raises.
Refreshments will be served.
Questions: Call (305)348-3155
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007, 11 AM
WC 130- Wertheim Conservatory
The Barbara Gordon Memorial Lecture Series
Questions: Call (305)348-3155