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"Can" or "May"?

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg examines one of the early rules of grammar we all have shoved down our throats,... the difference between can and may.

03:30
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Other segments from the episode on November 5, 1991

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, November 5, 1991: Interview with Joe Mantegna; Interview with Stanley Burns; Commentary on the difference between "can" and "may."
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23:17

Actor Joe Mantegna.

Actor Joe Mantegna. Mantegna plays a tough cop investigating a murder in the new David Mamet film, "Homicide." Mantegna's worked with Mamet several times before, starring in his movie, "House of Games," and in the Mamet play, "Glengarry, Glen Ross."

Interview
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16:11

Remembering the Dead in Photography.

Surgeon and photographic historian Stanley Burns. Burns has just compiled a book called "Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography In America." It chronicles what was a common occurrence in the late 1800s and early 1900s... taking one last photograph of a dead relative. (The book's published by Twelvetrees Press).

Interview

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Ironic, Informal And Expressive, 'New Rules Of Language' Evolve Online

With all our texting, tweeting and social media posting, billions of people are using typed words for the kind everyday communication that used to happen more often in conversation. A new book argues that we’ve created a unique new language to reproduce the shades of meaning that we used to convey verbally. Our linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the new rules of language that he calls chat-speak.

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