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How We Talk

NJ Enfield author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Basic Books

Published:30th Nov '17

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

How We Talk cover

We all had teachers who scolded us over the use of um, uh-huh, oh, like, and mm-hmm. But as linguist N. J. Enfield reveals in How We Talk, these "bad words" are fundamental to language.

Whether we are speaking with the clerk at the store, our boss, or our spouse, language is dependent on things as commonplace as a rising tone of voice, an apparently meaningless word, or a glance-signals so small that we hardly pay them any conscious attention. Nevertheless, they are the essence of how we speak. From the traffic signals of speech to the importance of um, How We Talk revolutionises our understanding of conversation. In the process, Enfield reveals what makes language universally-and uniquely-human.

ISBN: 9780465059942

Dimensions: 148mm x 219mm x 25mm

Weight: 388g

272 pages