The Grammar of Conversation

The Handbook of English Linguistics

Volumn , Issue , 2008, Pages 692-723

  Quaglio, Paulo ^a   Biber, Douglas ^b  

^a STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

^b NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Anthropology; Conversation; Grammar; Linguistics; Sociology

Indexed keywords

EID: 84890605090     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.1002/9780470753002.ch29     Document Type: Chapter

References (100)

1. Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., and Finegan, E. (1999) Longman grammar of spoken and written English. London: Longman.
2. The authors take a corpus-based approach to describe English grammar from both structural and use perspectives. The patterns of use across four registers are compared (i.e., conversation, fiction, news, and academic prose) and natural corpus examples are presented to illustrate the grammatical features discussed throughout the book. A separate chapter is dedicated exclusively to spoken English (ch. 14, The grammar of conversation).
3. Aijmer, K. (1996) Conversational routines in English: convention and creativity. New York: Longman.
4. This is a comprehensive, corpus-based study of some of the most frequent conversational routines (e.g., apologies, requests, offers) in English. Examples from face-to-face conversations, radio discussions, and telephone conversations illustrate these expressions from a grammatical and pragmatic perspective.
5. Eggins, S., and Slade, D. (1997) Analysing casual conversation. New York: Continuum.
6. An interdisciplinary (sociology, linguistics, semiotics) approach is taken by the authors to analyze the grammatical and discourse features of casual conversation, including conversational genres such as storytelling and gossip.
7. Carter, R., and McCarthy, M. (1995) Grammar and the spoken language. Applied Linguistics 16 (2), 141-158. In this article, Carter and McCarthy emphasize the importance of describing spoken grammar and bringing authentic spoken data to the ESL/EFL classroom. The analysis of selected grammatical features shows that there is a discrepancy between real conversation and how it is depicted in pedagogical grammars.
8. Leech, G. (2000) Grammars of spoken English: new outcomes of corpus-oriented research. Language Learning, 50 (4), 675-724.
9. Leech surveys current corpus-based research on spoken English grammar commenting on the strengths and limitations of the corpus-based approach. Comparing the grammar of spoken and written English, the author discusses the existence of one or two different systems. Pedagogical implications are drawn.
10. Aarts, F. (1993) Who, whom, that and Ø in two corpora of spoken English. English Today 9, 19-21.
11. Aarts, F. (1994) Imperative sentences in a corpus of English conversation. Leuvense Bijdragen 83, 145-55.
12. Aijmer, K. (1984) Sort of and kind of in English conversation. Studia Linguistica 38, 118-28.
13. Aijmer, K. (1986) Why is actually so popular in spoken English? In G. Tottie and I. Backlund (eds.), English in speech and writing: a symposium. Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 60, Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 119-29.
14. Aijmer, K. (1987) Discourse variation and hedging. Costerus 57, 1-18.
15. Aijmer, K. (1996) Conversational routines in English: convention and creativity. New York: Longman.
16. Altenberg, B. (1984) Lexical and sex-related differences in spoken and written English: some results of undergraduate research at Lund University. In H. Ringbom and M. Rissanen (eds.), Proceedings from the Nordic conference for English studies. Lund: Lund University Press.
17. Altenberg, B. (1991) Amplifier collocations in spoken English. In S. Johansson and A.-B. Stenstrom (eds.), English computer corpora: selected papers and research guide. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 127-47.
18. Altenberg, B. (1993) On the functions of such in spoken and written English. In N. Oostdijk and P. de Haan (eds.), Corpus-based research into language: in honour of Jan Aarts. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 223-40.
19. Altenberg, B. (1998) On the phraseology of spoken English: the evidence of recurrent word-combinations. In A. P. Cowie (ed.), Phraseology: theory, analysis, and applications. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 101-22.
20. Austin, J. L. (1962) How to do things with words. New York: Oxford University Press.
21. Bäcklund, I. (1986) Beat until stiff: conjunction-headed abbreviated clauses in spoken and written English. In G. Tottie and I. Bäcklund (eds.), English in speech and writing: a symposium. Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksell, 41-55.
22. Bargiela-Chiappini, F. (2003) Face and politeness: new (insights) for old (concepts). Journal of Pragmatics 35, 1453-69.
23. Biber, D. (1988) Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
24. Biber, D. (2004) Conversational text types: a multidimensional analysis. In C. Fairon, L. Lebart, and A. Salem (eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Statistical Analysis of Textual Data.
25. Biber, D. and Conrad, S. (1999) Lexical bundles in conversation and academic prose. In H. Hasselgard and S. Oksefjell (eds.), Out of corpora: studies in honour of Stig Johansson. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 189-90.
26. Biber, D. and Burges, J. (2001) Historical shifts in the language of women and men: gender differences in dramatic dialogue. In S. Conrad and D. Biber (eds.), Variation in English: multi-dimensional studies. London: Longman, 157-70.
27. Biber, D., Conrad, S., and Reppen R. (1998) Corpus linguistics: investigating language structure and use. New York: Cambridge University Press.
28. Biber, D., Conrad, S., and Cortes, V. (2004) If you look at. . . : Lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied Linguistics 25, 371-405.
29. Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., and Finegan, E. (1999) Longman grammar of spoken and written English. London: Longman.
30. Blum-Kulka, S., House-Edmondson, J., and Kasper, G. (1989) Cross-cultural pragmatics: requests and apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
31. Boxer, D. (2002) Discourse issues in cross-cultural pragmatics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 22, 150-67.
32. Bright, K. S., Kauffman, M., and Crane, D. (executive producers) (1994) Friends [Television series]. New York: National Broadcasting Company.
33. Brown, P. and Levinson, S. C. (1987) Politeness: some universals on language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34. Cameron, D. (2001) Working with spoken discourse. London: Sage.
35. Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. (1997) Exploring spoken English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
36. Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. (1999) The English get-passive in spoken discourse: description and implications for an interpersonal grammar. English Language and Linguistics 3 (1), 41-58.
37. Chafe, W. (1987) Cognitive constraints on information flow. In R. S. Tomlin (ed.), Coherence and grounding in discourse. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 21-51.
38. Chafe, W. (1994) Discourse, consciousness, and time: the flow and displacement of conscious experience in speaking and writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
39. Condon, S. L. (2001) Discourse ok revisited: default organization in verbal interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 33, 491-513.
40. Conrad, S. and Biber, D. (2000) Adverbial marking of stance in speech and writing. In S. Hunston and G. Thompson (eds.), Evaluation in text: authorial stance and the construction of discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 56-73.
41. Coulmas, F. (ed.) (1981) Conversational routine: explorations in standardized communication situations and prepatterned speech. The Hague: Mouton.
42. Crawford, W. (2005) Verb agreement and disagreement: a corpus investigation of concord variation in existential there+be constructions. Journal of English Linguistics 33, 1-27.
43. Dailey-O'Cain, J. (2000) The sociolinguistic distribution of and attitudes toward focuser like and quotative like. Journal of Sociolinguistics 4, 60-79.
44. Deirdre, W. and Sperber, D. (2002) Truthfulness and relevance. Mind 111 (443), 583-632.
45. Eggins, S., and Slade, D. (1997) Analysing casual conversation. New York: Continuum.
46. Erman, B. (1986) Some pragmatic expressions in English conversation. In G. Tottie and I. Backlund (eds.), English in speech and writing: a symposium. Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 60, Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 131-47.
47. Feagin, C. (1991) Preverbal done in southern states English. In P. Trudgill and J. K. Chambers (eds.), Dialects of English: studies in grammatical variation. New York: Longman, 161-90.
48. Ford, C. E., Fox, B. A., and Thompson, S. A. (2002) The language of turn and sequence. New York: Oxford University Press.
49. Fox, B. A. (1987) Discourse structure and anaphora: written and conversational English. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, Cambridge University Press.
50. Fox, B. A. and Thompson, S. A. (1990) A discourse explanation of the grammar of relative clauses in English conversation. Language 66, 297-316.
51. Greenbaum, S. and Nelson, G. (1995) Clause relationships in spoken and written English. Functions of Language 2 (1), 1-21.
52. Grice, H. P. (1975) Logic and conversation. In P. Cole and J. Morgan (eds.), Speech act: vol. 3 of syntax and semantics. New York: Academic Press, 41-58.
53. Grice, H. P. (1989) Studies in the way of words. Cambridge: MA: Harvard University Press.
54. Hardy, D. E. (1996) Topic versus cohesion in the prediction of causal ordering in English conversation. Discourse Processes 21, 237-54.
55. Horn, L. (1984) Toward a new taxonomy for pragmatic inference: Q-based and R-based implicature. In D. Schiffrin (ed.), Meaning, form and use in context: linguistic applications. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.
56. Johnstone, B. (1994) Repetition in discourse: Interdisciplinary perspectives, vols.1 and 2. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
57. Kasper, G. (1990) Linguistic politeness: Current research issues. Journal of Pragmatics 14, 193-218.
58. Leech, G. (1999) The distribution and function of vocatives in American and British English conversation. In H. Hasselgard and S. Oksefjell (eds.), Out of corpora: studies in honour of Stig Johansson. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 107-18.
59. Martinez Insua, A. E. and Palacios Martinez, I. M. (2003) A corpus-based approach to non-concord in present day English existential there-constructions. English Studies 3, 262-83.
60. McCarthy, M. (1998) Spoken language and applied linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
61. McCarthy, M. (2002) Good listenership made plain: British and American non-minimal response tokens in everyday conversation. In R. Reppen, S. Fitzmaurice, and D. Biber (eds.), Using corpora to explore linguistic variation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 49-71.
62. McCarthy, M. and Carter, R. (1995) Spoken grammar: what is it and how can we teach it? ELT Journal 49 (3), 207-18.
63. McCarthy, M. and Carter, R. (1997) Written and spoken vocabulary. In N. Schmitt and M. McCarthy (eds.), Vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20-39.
64. Meyer, C. (1995) Coordination ellipsis in spoken and written American English. Language Sciences 17, 241-69.
65. Prince, E. F. (1981) Toward a taxonomy of given-new information. In P. Cole (ed.), Radical pragmatics. London: Academic Press, 223-5.
66. Quaglio, P. (2002) The language of NBC's Friends: implications for ESL/EFL teaching and materials development. Paper presented at the Fourth North American Symposium on Corpus Linguistics, Indianapolis, IN.
67. Quaglio, P. (2004) The language of NBC's Friends: a comparison with face-to-face conversation. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Northern Arizona University.
68. Rey, J. M. (2001) Changing gender roles in popular culture: dialogue in Star Trek episodes from 1966 to 1993. In S. Conrad and D. Biber (eds.), Variation in English: multi-dimensional studies. London: Longman, 138-55.
69. Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., and Jefferson, G. (1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50, 696-735.
70. Sbisa, M. (2002) Speech acts in context. Language & Communication 22, 421-36.
71. Schegloff, E. A. (1997a) Practices and actions: boundary cases of other-initiated repair. Discourse Processes 23, 499-545.
72. Schegloff, E. A. (1997b) Third turn repair. In G. Guy, C. Feagin, D. Schiffrin, and J. Baugh (eds.), Towards a social science of language. Papers in honor of William Labov, vol. 2. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 31-40.
73. Schegloff, E. A. (2000a) Overlapping talk and the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language in Society 29 (1), 1-63.
74. Schegloff, E. A. (2000b) When 'others' initiate repair. Applied Linguistics 21 (2), 205-43.
75. Schegloff, E. A. (2001) Accounts of conduct in interaction: interruption, overlap and turn-taking. In J. H. Turner (ed.), Handbook of sociological theory. New York: Plenum, 287-321.
76. Schegloff, E. and Sacks, H. (1973) Opening up closings. Semiotica 8, 289-327.
77. Schiffrin, D. (1985) Conversational coherence: the role of Well. Language 61, 640-67.
78. Schiffrin, D. (1987) Discourse markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
79. Schourup, L. (2001) Rethinking well. Journal of Pragmatics 33, 1025-60.
80. Searle, J. R. (1969) Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
81. Spencer-Oatey, H. and Jiang, W. (2003) Explaining cross-cultural pragmatic findings: moving from politeness maxims to sociopragmatic interactional principles (SIPs). Journal of Pragmatics 35, 1633-50.
82. Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1986a) Relevance: communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.
83. Stenström, A-B. (1986) What does really really do? Strategies in speech and writing. In G. Tottie and I. Backlund (eds.), English in speech and writing: a symposium. Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 60, Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 149-63.
84. Stenström, A-B. (1991) Expletives in the London-Lund corpus. In K. Aijmer and B. Altenberg (eds.), English corpus linguistics: studies in honour of Jan Svartvik. London: Longman, 239-53.
85. Stenström, A-B. (1999) He was really gormless-she's bloody crap: girls, boys and intensifiers. In H. Hasselgard and S. Oksefjell (eds.), Out of corpora: studies in honour of Stig Johansson. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 69-78.
86. Taguchi, N. (2002) A comparative analysis of discourse markers in English conversational registers. Issues in Applied Linguistics 13 (1), 41-68.
87. Tannen, D. (1984) Coherence in spoken and written discourse: advances in discourse processes. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
88. Tannen, D. (1989) Talking voices: repetition, dialogue, and imagery in conversational discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
89. Tannen, D. and Lakoff, R. (1994) Conversational strategy and metastrategy in Bergman. In D. Tannen (ed.), Gender and discourse. New York: Oxford University Press, 137-73.
90. Tao, H. and McCarthy, M. (2001) Understanding non-restrictive which-clauses in spoken English, which is not an easy thing. Language Sciences 23, 651-77.
91. Tottie, G. (1986) The importance of being adverbial: adverbials of focusing and contingency in spoken and written English. In G. Tottie and I. Backlund (eds.), English in speech and writing: a symposium. Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 60, Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 93-118.
92. Tottie, G. (1991) Conversational style in British and American English: the case of backchannels. In K. Aijmer and B. Altenberg (eds.), English corpus linguistics. London: Longman, 254-71.
93. Underhill, R. (1988) Like is, like, focus. American Speech 63, 234-46.
94. Viitanen, O. (1986) On the position of only in English conversation. In G. Tottie and I. Backlund (eds.), English in speech and writing: a symposium. Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 60, Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 165-75.
95. Wachal, R. S. (2002) Taboo or not taboo: that is the question. American Speech 77, 195-206.
96. Waksler, R. (2001) A new all in conversation. American Speech 76, 128-38.
97. Ward, G. and Birner, B. J. (1993) The semantics and pragmatics of and everything. Journal of Pragmatics 19, 205-14.
98. Washburn, G. (2001) Using situation comedies for pragmatic language teaching and learning. TESOL Journal 10, 21-6.
99. Wilson, D. and Sperber, D. (2002) Truthfulness and relevance. Mind 111 (443), 583-632.
100. Wong, J. (2000a) Delayed next turn repair initiation in native-nonnative speaker English conversation. Applied Linguistics 21 (2), 244-67.