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Let's Talk: How English Conversation Works
Banter, chit-chat, gossip, natter, tete-a-tete: these are just a few of the terms for the varied ways in which we interact with one another through conversation. David Crystal explores the factors that motivate so many different kinds of talk and reveals the rules we use unconsciously, even in the most routine exchanges of everyday conversation. We tend to think of conversation as something spontaneous, instinctive, habitual. It has been described as an art, as a game, sometimes even as a battle. Whichever metaphor we use, most people are unaware of what the rules are, how they work, and how we can bend and break them when circumstances warrant it.
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Let's Talk: How English Conversation Works
Banter, chit-chat, gossip, natter, tete-a-tete: these are just a few of the terms for the varied ways in which we interact with one another through conversation. David Crystal explores the factors that motivate so many different kinds of talk and reveals the rules we use unconsciously, even in the most routine exchanges of everyday conversation. We tend to think of conversation as something spontaneous, instinctive, habitual. It has been described as an art, as a game, sometimes even as a battle. Whichever metaphor we use, most people are unaware of what the rules are, how they work, and how we can bend and break them when circumstances warrant it.
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Let's Talk: How English Conversation Works

Let's Talk: How English Conversation Works

by David Crystal
Let's Talk: How English Conversation Works
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Let's Talk: How English Conversation Works

Let's Talk: How English Conversation Works

by David Crystal

Overview

Banter, chit-chat, gossip, natter, tete-a-tete: these are just a few of the terms for the varied ways in which we interact with one another through conversation. David Crystal explores the factors that motivate so many different kinds of talk and reveals the rules we use unconsciously, even in the most routine exchanges of everyday conversation. We tend to think of conversation as something spontaneous, instinctive, habitual. It has been described as an art, as a game, sometimes even as a battle. Whichever metaphor we use, most people are unaware of what the rules are, how they work, and how we can bend and break them when circumstances warrant it.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780192591104
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication date: 07/09/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 256
File size: 555 KB

About the Author

David Crystal is known throughout the world as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster on language. He has published extensively on the history and development of English, including Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language (2010), The Story of English in 100 Words (2011), Spell It Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling (2012), Wordsmiths and Warriors: The English-Language Tourist's Guide to Britain (with Hilary Crystal, 2013), The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation (2016), and The Story of Be: A Verb's-Eye View of the English Language (2017).

Table of Contents

1. Greetings!
2. In the beginning...
3. A thousand years of conversation
4. Exchanges
5. Taking turns - or not
6. Interrupting
7. What we talk about
8. How we talk about it
9. Taking it easy
10. Story-telling
11. Stylistic options
12. The vocal and the visual
13. Conversation as theatre
14. Online 'conversations'
15. Cultural conversations
16. Breaking the rules
17. Does conversation change?
18. #Almost done
Epilogue
References
Index
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Related Subjects

Philosophy
Linguistics & Semiotics
Syntax
Philosophy
Linguistics & Semiotics
Syntax

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