Books in the Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics series

Matters of Opinion offers an interesting insight into 'public opinion' as reported in the media, asking where these opinions actually come from, and how they have their effects. Drawing on the analysis of conversations from focus groups, phone-ins and broadcast interviews with members of the public, Greg Myers argues that we must go back to these encounters, asking questions such as what members of the public thought they were being asked, who they were talking as, and whom they were talking to. He reveals that people don't carry a store of opinions, ready to tell strangers; they use opinions in order to get along with other people, and how they say things is as important as what they say. Engaging and informative, this book illuminates debates on research methods, the public sphere and deliberative democracy, on broadcast talk, and on what it means to participate in public life.

This study is about the principles for constructing polite speeches. The core of it first appeared in Questions and Politeness, edited by Esther N. Goody (now out of print). It is here reissued with a fresh introduction that surveys the considerable literature in linguistics, psychology and the social sciences that the original extended essay stimulated, and suggests distinct directions for research. The authors describe and account for some remarkable parallelisms in the linguistic construction of utterances with which people express themselves in different languages and cultures. A motive for these parallels is isolated and a universal model is constructed outlining the abstract principles underlying polite usages. This is based on the detailed study of three unrelated languages and cultures: the Tamil of South India, the Tzeltal spoken by Mayan Indians in Chiapas, Mexico, and the English of the USA and England. This volume will be of special interest to students in linguistic pragmatics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, anthropology, and the sociology and social psychology of interaction.

When is language considered 'impolite'? Is impolite language only used for anti-social purposes? What is the difference between 'impoliteness' and 'rudeness'? Grounded in naturally-occurring language data and drawing on findings from linguistic pragmatics and social psychology, Jonathan Culpeper provides a fascinating account of how impolite behaviour works.

In conversation we treat each other as having rights and responsibilities to know certain information and observe each other for violations of this moral order. This book examines practices used in managing what we know, how we monitor one another's knowledge, and how this affects our affiliation with others.

Reported speech, or the quotation of others' words, is used in many different types of interaction. In this revealing study, a team of leading experts explore how reported speech is designed, the actions it is used to perform, and how it fits into the environments in which it is used.

Laughter in Interaction is an illuminating and lively account of how and why people laugh during conversation. Bringing together twenty-five years of research on the sequential organisation of laughter in everyday talk, Glenn analyses recordings and transcripts to show the finely detailed co-ordination of human laughter.

'Conversation analysis' is an approach to the study of social interaction that focuses on practices of speaking that recur across a range of contexts and settings. Through detailed analyses of recorded conversations, this book examines differences and similarities across a wide range of languages including Finnish, Japanese, Russian, and Mandarin.

The relationship between language, discourse and identity has always been a major area of sociolinguistic investigation, which in recent years has been revolutionized by some pioneering models and approaches. By applying these to numerous social contexts, this volume sheds light on how our social practices help shape our identities.

In this 2006 volume, a team of leading contributors from the fields of linguistics, sociology and medicine examine how doctors and patients communicate in primary care consultations. Clear, informative and comprehensive, it will be essential reading for students and researchers in sociolinguistics, communication studies, sociology, and medicine.

Reported speech, or the quotation of others' words, is used in many different types of interaction. In this revealing study, a team of leading experts explore how reported speech is designed, the actions it is used to perform, and how it fits into the environments in which it is used.

Talking Voices, first published in 2007, presents the scholarly research that forms the foundation for Deborah Tannen's best-selling books about the role of language in human relationships. It provides a clear framework for understanding how ordinary conversation creates meaning and establishes relationships.

The relationship between language, discourse and identity has always been a major area of sociolinguistic investigation, which in recent years has been revolutionized by some pioneering models and approaches. By applying these to numerous social contexts, this volume sheds light on how our social practices help shape our identities.

The essays in this volume are all analyses of prosody - primarily intonation and rhythm - and the role it plays in everyday conversation, and they study material which is taken not from laboratory data but from genuine English, German, and Italian conversations.

The study of teenagers' interaction in the classroom can tell us a great deal about late-modern society. In this revealing account, Ben Rampton presents his extensive sociolinguistic research in an inner-city high school, offering a fresh contribution to some major debates in sociology, anthropology, cultural studies and education.

This book explores two important tasks of language - presenting 'who' we are talking about and 'what happened' in a narrative - and how this alters according to emergent forms and meanings. Using a range of examples, it shows how words, structures and meanings are re-used in new contexts for new listeners.

This study identifies key mechanisms through which a young child operates with external knowledge in her immediate social context. In contrast to studies which analyse development under different headings, Tony Wootton links these aspects in his examination of the state of understanding which exists at any given moment in interaction.

This book makes available five classic studies of the organisation of behaviour in face-to-face interaction. It includes Adam Kendon's well-known study of gaze-direction in interaction, his study of greetings, of the interactional functions of facial expression and of the spatial organisation of naturally occurring interaction, as recorded by means of film or videotape.

This study combines analysis of actual talk and power technologies with a reflection on the communicative representation of cultural constructs such as truth and credibility to examine shifting relationships between witnesses and the Justice Department in the trials of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata, an Italian criminal organisation.

The contributors to this volume explore a rich variety of linkages between interaction and grammar, proposing as their starting-point that the very integrity of grammar is bound up with its place in the larger schemes of the organisation of human conduct, particularly social interaction.

Conversations between AIDS counsellors and their clients bring delicate and potentially threatening issues into play. This study applies the principles of conversation analysis to an exploration of AIDS counselling, using data from video-recorded counselling sessions in a London teaching hospital.

Talk at Work is a major collection of studies of language and interaction in a wide variety of institutional and workplace settings.

Discourse markers - the particles oh, well, now, then, you know and I mean, and the connectives so, because, and, but and or - perform important functions in conversation. Dr Schiffrin's approach is firmly interdisciplinary, within linguistics and sociology, and her rigourous analysis clearly demonstrates that neither the markers, nor the discourse within which they function, can be understood from one point of view alone, but only as an integration of structural, semantic, pragmatic, and social factors. The core of the book is a comparative analysis of markers within conversational discourse collected by Dr Schiffrin during sociolinguistic fieldwork. The study concludes that markers provide contextual coordinates which aid in the production and interpretation of coherent conversation at both local and global levels of organization. It raises a wide range of theoretical and methodological issues important to discourse analysis - including the relationship between meaning and use, the role of qualitative and quantitative analyses - and the insights it offers will be of particular value to readers confronting the very substantial problems presented by the search for a model of discourse which is based on what people actually say, mean, and do with words in everyday social interaction.

This volume raises important questions about children's acquisition of literacy, the ability to produce and interpret written text, which is considered the basis of all school achievement. This extensively-revised second edition contains an updated introduction and bibliography.

Cecilia Ford contributes to a growing body of research on grammar in discourse, which has until recently remained largely focused on monologic rather than dialogic functions of language.

The news interview has become a major vehicle for presenting broadcast news and political commentary, and a primary interface between the institutions of journalism and government. This much-needed work examines the place of the news interview in Anglo-American society and considers its historical development in the United States and Britain. The main body of the book discusses the fundamental norms and conventions that shape conduct in the modern interview. It explores the particular recurrent practices through which journalists balance competing professional norms that encourage both objective and adversarial treatment of public figures. Through analyses of well-known interviews, the book explores the relationship between journalists and public figures and also how, in the face of aggressive questioning, politicians and other public figures struggle to stay 'on message' and pursue their own agendas. This comprehensive and wide-ranging book will be essential reading for students and researchers in sociolinguistics, media and communication studies.

Chinese and Americans often unwittingly communicate at cross purposes because of the cultural trappings of talk. This book examines Chinese communicative strategies, with formal analysis of taped interchanges and in-depth interviews, to reveal speakers' distinctive ways of talking.

Gender and Politeness challenges the notion that women are necessarily always more polite than men. It aims to show that politeness and impoliteness are in essence judgements about another's interventions in an interaction and about that person as a whole, and are not simple classifications of particular types of speech.

The contributors to this volume explore a rich variety of linkages between interaction and grammar, proposing as their starting-point that the very integrity of grammar is bound up with its place in the larger schemes of the organisation of human conduct, particularly social interaction.

The essays in this volume are all analyses of prosody - primarily intonation and rhythm - and the role it plays in everyday conversation, and they study material which is taken not from laboratory data but from genuine English, German, and Italian conversations.