ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|106 pages
Locating small talk theoretically
part II|75 pages
Procedural aspects: participants' orientations to and organisation of small talk
part III|55 pages
Small talk, sociability and social cohesion
part IV|47 pages
Professional and commercial applications