
How We Talk
The Inner Workings of Conversation
NJ Enfield(Author)
Basic Books (Publisher)
Published on 30. November 2017
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-465-05994-2 (ISBN)
Description
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 revolutionises our understanding of conversation. In the process, Enfield reveals what makes language universally-and uniquely-human.
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 revolutionises our understanding of conversation. In the process, Enfield reveals what makes language universally-and uniquely-human.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
With printed dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 144 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
394 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-465-05994-2 (9780465059942)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2017
1st Edition
Basic Books
€12.99
Available for download
Person
N. J. Enfield is a professor and the chair of linguistics at the University of Sydney, and a research associate in the Language and Cognition Group at the Max Planck Institute. He lives in Sydney, Australia.