Richard A. Spears, Ph.D. is Adjunct Associate Professor of Linguistics, Northwestern University, and a specialist in lexicography, phonetics, English as a Second Language, and American culture. He is also Executive Editor of the Dictionary Department at NTC Publishing Group.
Steven R. Kleinedler holds a B.A. in linguistics from Northwestern University and is a doctoral student in the Linguistics Department at the University of Chicago.
Betty J. Birner, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is doing research on pragmatics and discourse.