ABSTRACT

Describes how conversation works, providing a systematic and exhaustive account of the structure of spoken discourse and the diverse strategies speakers use to have a conversation. It is illustrated throughout with excerpts from genuine conversation and contains numerous exercises with suggested answers based on conversations in the London-Lund Corpus of English Conversation.

chapter 1|29 pages

General characteristics

chapter 2|38 pages

Interactional structure

chapter 3|66 pages

Interactional strategies

chapter 4|66 pages

Conversation

chapter 5|11 pages

Discourse and grammar