Overview

This study presents a new perspective on small talk and its crucial role in everyday communication. The new approach presented here is supported by analyses of interactional data in specific settings - private and public, face-to-face and telephone talk. They vary from gossip at the family dinner table and intimate 'keeping in touch' phone conversations, to interpersonally-focused talk in institutional settings, such as the government office and the university research seminar. Drawing on a range of methodological approaches, including Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics, Interpersonal Communication and Conversation Analysis, the author elevates small talk to a new status, as functionally multifaceted, but central to social interaction as a whole.

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9781138152472

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''All of the essays in this collection emphasize the complexity of small talk, they also stress the important role that small talk has in interpersonal relations particularly in conversatons between strangers and institutional settings.'' Sara Mills, Sheffield Hallam University

All of the essays in this collection emphasize the complexity of small talk, they also stress the important role that small talk has in interpersonal relations particularly in conversatons between strangers and institutional settings. Sara Mills, Sheffield Hallam University

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 Justine Coupland

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