ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on miscommunication in spoken workplace discourse, with particular reference to issues of practical relevance and complexity. A brief overview of key areas of research since the mid-1980s is followed by discussion of critical issues in the theorization of problematic communication. The third section details a multi-dimensional framework for analysing “real world” cases of miscommunication, illustrated by detailed exploration of an actual episode of problematic workplace talk. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the advantages of using an integrated heuristic model informed by critical interactional sociolinguistics as a tool for the situated analysis of miscommunication.
