I'm an adjunct full professor at UC Berkeley's School of Information.  My linguistics research includes work in semantics and pragmatics, text classification, and written-language structure, and I also work and write on the social and cultural implications of new technologies.

I do a feature on language on the NPR show "Fresh Air" and have written numerous commentaries on language for the Sunday New York Times Week in Review, as well as for other periodicals. I've also contributed occasional "letters from America" to the BBC4 series "State of the Union." I'm the emeritus chair of the usage panel of the American Heritage Dictionary.

For the that-and-a-nickel-will-get-you-on-the-subway file: I have a Bacon number of 3 and an Erdös number of 4, making for an Erdös-Bacon number of 7.

Books

My new book The Years of Talking Dangerously was published in May by PublicAffairs. A review & interview by Chris Waigant at HuffPo Review in the Guardian Review in the San Francisco Chronicle

My last book was -- deep breath now -- 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 (PublicAffairs, July 2006). It was chosen as one of 10 best nonfiction books of 2006 by  Washington Monthly.      Reviews &c.

My previous book Going Nucular (PublicAffairs, 2004) was selected by Amazon.com as one of the 10 best nonfiction books of 2004 and as one of the "top 10 books of the year" by  January magazine and the San Jose Mercury News. It was also named best language book of the year by the Hartford Courant and listed among the year's best language books by the Chicago Tribune and the Boston Globe.

Some pieces from the Sunday New York Times Week in Review

Other commentaries & pieces

Going nuclear
Going nuclear