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'Talking Right': Why the Left Is Losing, Linguistically

"Over recent decades, the left has lost the battle for the language itself," writes Nunberg in his new book.
"Over recent decades, the left has lost the battle for the language itself," writes Nunberg in his new book.

In his new book, Talking Right, linguist Geoff Nunberg examines the parlance of the American political right. Conservatives, Nunberg notes, have been remarkably effective at creating a language through which to convey their agenda. The subtitle of his book illustrates what he's getting at: "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."

Nunberg, who teaches at the University of California-Berkeley, is a researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. He is also the author of Going Nucular and The Way We Talk Now.

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