How We Talk
Published on 14. November 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-5416-4502-8 (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
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 214 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
300 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5416-4502-8 (9781541645028)
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Schweitzer Classification
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.