How We Talk: The Inner Workings of Conversation
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
Description
An expert guide to how conversation works, from how we know when to speak to why huh is a universal word
We all had teachers who scolded us over the use of um, uh-huh, oh, like, and mm-hmm. But as linguist N. J. Enfield reveals in How We Talk, these "bad words" are fundamental to language.Whether we are speaking with the clerk at the store, our boss, or our spouse, language is dependent on things as commonplace as a rising tone of voice, an apparently meaningless word, or a glance — signals so small that we hardly pay them any conscious attention. Nevertheless, they are the essence of how we speak. From the traffic signals of speech to the importance of um, How We Talk revolutionizes our understanding of conversation. In the process, Enfield reveals what makes language universally — and uniquely — human.
We all had teachers who scolded us over the use of um, uh-huh, oh, like, and mm-hmm. But as linguist N. J. Enfield reveals in How We Talk, these "bad words" are fundamental to language.Whether we are speaking with the clerk at the store, our boss, or our spouse, language is dependent on things as commonplace as a rising tone of voice, an apparently meaningless word, or a glance — signals so small that we hardly pay them any conscious attention. Nevertheless, they are the essence of how we speak. From the traffic signals of speech to the importance of um, How We Talk revolutionizes our understanding of conversation. In the process, Enfield reveals what makes language universally — and uniquely — human.
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More Details
Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Edition:
1
Street Date:
11/14/2017
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780465093762
ASIN:
B06XFW22K7
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)
N. J. Enfield. (2017). How We Talk: The Inner Workings of Conversation. 1 Basic Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)N. J. Enfield. 2017. How We Talk: The Inner Workings of Conversation. Basic Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)N. J. Enfield, How We Talk: The Inner Workings of Conversation. Basic Books, 2017.
MLA Citation (style guide)N. J. Enfield. How We Talk: The Inner Workings of Conversation. 1 Basic Books, 2017.
Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 1 | 1 |
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Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 16:05:20
Date Updated:
Dec 06, 2020 02:42:16
Last Metadata Check:
Apr 21, 2024 07:29:51
Last Metadata Change:
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Last Availability Check:
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Last Availability Change:
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Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Apr 24, 2024 05:20:57
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- An expert guide to how conversation works, from how we know when to speak to why huh is a universal word
We all had teachers who scolded us over the use of um, uh-huh, oh, like, and mm-hmm. But as linguist N. J. Enfield reveals in How We Talk, these "bad words" are fundamental to language.Whether we are speaking with the clerk at the store, our boss, or our spouse, language is dependent on things as commonplace as a rising tone of voice, an apparently meaningless word, or a glance — signals so small that we hardly pay them any conscious attention. Nevertheless, they are the essence of how we speak. From the traffic signals of speech to the importance of um, How We Talk revolutionizes our understanding of conversation. In the process, Enfield reveals what makes language universally — and uniquely — human. - reviews
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August 28, 2017
Linguistic anthropologist Enfield (Dependencies in Language) sets out to address what he frames as a major hole in our scientific understanding of human language: conversation, “where language lives and breathes.” He notes that linguistic studies tend to focus exclusively on formal, typically written language, and argues cogently that, far from the “messy back and forth” it sometimes seems, conversation is precisely and actively managed, a finely tuned product of social cooperation that only humans are known to achieve. His special focus falls on some of the most common (and commonly reviled) utterances in English (with references to comparable expressions in other languages), such as “huh,” “um,” and “uh.” Traditionally ignored in academic study, these tiny pieces of conversational glue turn out to be vitally important, functioning as facilitators of social cooperation. Enfield makes a solid case for more focus—and fieldwork—on conversation as a key to understanding “what makes language possible in our species.” He does all this in clear and casually authoritative prose, with reference to copious examples—study results, yes, but also snippets of “language in its wild environment”—which make his arguments easy to understand. This survey performs the neat trick of offering enormous amounts of complex material in a format that remains utterly accessible.
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We all had teachers who scolded us over the use of um, uh-huh, oh, like, and mm-hmm. But as linguist N. J. Enfield reveals in How We Talk, these "bad words" are fundamental to language.Whether we are speaking with the clerk at the store, our boss, or our spouse, language is dependent on things as commonplace as a rising tone of voice, an apparently meaningless word, or a glance — signals so small that we hardly pay them any conscious attention. Nevertheless, they are the essence of how we speak. From the traffic signals of speech to the importance of um, How We Talk revolutionizes our understanding of conversation. In the process, Enfield reveals what makes language universally — and uniquely — human. - sortTitle
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