The study describes a detailed and original piece of research work, investigating a very important genre of human communication, and that is conversation. It provides a definition of the genre of conversation by describing nine features of conversation, namely multiple sources, discourse coherence, language as doing, co-operation, unfolding, open-endedness, artifacts, inexplicitness and shared responsibility. These nine features of naturalness in conversation serve to distinguish conversation from specialized discourse types. The study illustrates the nine defining features of conversation with authentic conversational data collected surreptitiously in England. While this study is of native speakers of English, the nine defining features of naturalness of English conversation are applicable to conversations conducted in other languages.

Table of contents

Acknowledgements, ix Introduction, 1–14 Data, 15–27 Multiple sources, 29–53 Determination of discourse coherence, 55–84 Language as doing, 85–106 Co-operation, 107–137 Unfolding, 139–158 Open-endedness, 159–178 Artefacts, 179–197 Inexplicitness, 199–221 Shared responsibility, 223–239 Conclusions, 241–245 References, 247–261 Transcription notation, 263 Name index, 265–267 Subject index, 269–271