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Description:
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The fourteen contributions in this collection come from different
approaches in pragmatics, interactional linguistics, conversation analysis,
discourse analysis and dialogue analysis; the name given to what is studied
ranges from spoken language and conversation to interaction, dialogue,
discourse and communication. What the articles have in common is a similar
starting point: they are informed by a form of linguistic understanding
which has emerged within what could be called the interactional turn. The
materials investigated come from several different languages, representing
a variety of interactions: private and public, written and spoken,
historical and present-day. While studies of such diverse materials
naturally differ in their starting points, goals and aims, engaging them in
a dialogue can help reveal where old beliefs may be challenged and new
understandings may emerge. The interactional approaches to discourse
presented in this volume show that there are several discourses on
interaction: interconnected, parallel, but also varying and even divergent.
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