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'Um' ... A Pause for Linguistic Appreciation

Fresh Air | By Geoff Nunberg

Published April 14, 2008 at 12:33 PM EDT

It's one of the most common words in English, and one of the most maligned. But it has been doing useful work for centuries, and lately it's acquired a new, hip meaning. Fresh Air linguist Geoff Nunberg gives us his thoughts on the little word, "um."

Geoff Nunberg

Geoff Nunberg is the linguist contributor on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

See stories by Geoff Nunberg

Stories From This Author

'Disinformation' Is The Word Of The Year — And A Sign Of What's To Come

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Foreign nations have been systematically spreading falsehoods on social media for years; in 2019, it seemed like the world began to fully grasp the ramifications of disinformation campaigns.
Ironic, Informal And Expressive, 'New Rules Of Language' Evolve Online

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A lively new book by Gretchen McCulloch dissects the common vernacular that forms the cornerstone of online communication. Because Internet parses emojis, lols and punctuation — or lack thereof.
Opinion: Even A Grammar Geezer Like Me Can Get Used To Gender Neutral Pronouns

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For anyone struggling to use "they" as a singular pronoun, linguist Geoff Nunberg says: Just practice. He believes human language processing capacity is far more adaptable than people realize.