How Conversation Works

Conversation is very often spontaneous, natural and informal. But even at its most casual it is governed by rules and principles of language and behaviour. This book lays bare the structure of conversation, describing what happens when people talk to each other and explaining why they say what they say in a wide variety of circumstances.

Ronald Wardhaugh explores many aspects of conversation, asking how conversations start, how we decide who will speak next, how we change the subject, and how we know when a conversation has finished.

How Conversation Works is the most accessible guide to discourse analysis and pragmatics yet written and will be read with profit and enjoyment by students and general readers alike.

Author: Ronald Wardhaugh
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Published: 01/08/1991
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.74h x 6.04w x 0.65d
ISBN: 9780631139393

About the Author
Ronald Wardhaugh is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto.

This title is not returnable