Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue and Imagery in Conversational Discourse (Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics) [Hardcover]

Deborah Tannen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 1989 | ISBN-10: 0521370019 | ISBN-13: 978-0521370011

A radical contribution to both linguistic and literary analysis, Talking Voices shows how conversation provides the source for linguistic strategies that are shaped and elaborated in literary discourse and other spoken and written, public and private genres. She explores the scenic and musical basis of both textual meaning and interpersonal involvement in discourse. Repetition establishes rhythm and meaning by patterns of constants and contrasts. Dialogue and imagery create scenes peopled by characters in relation to each other, doing things that are culturally and personally recognizable and meaningful. Our understanding of how discourse works--whether it is spontaneously uttered by conversationalists or carefully structured by the novelist or public speaker--is significantly advanced by this book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I...found myself immediately captivated. [Tannen's] central thesis is both 'obvious' and astonishing." Oliver Sacks

"Talking Voices provides a wealth of compelling data..." Studies in Second Language Aquisition

"Tannen should be applauded for pulling together work on the formal and functional patterning of a host of discourse features. She does so, moreover, in a highly readable form that is surprisingly devoid of jargon." Charles L. Briggs, American Anthropologist

"Tannen's goal is to include 'the personal and the particular' in linguistics. She succeeds in calling our attention to this important goal while linking it with issues of fundamental concern in discourse analysis." Stephen Boggs, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology

"...a suggestive book from which almost everyone can learn--and some can learn a good deal." Symposium

Book Description

A radical contribution to both linguistic and literary analysis, this study shows how conversation provides the source for linguistic strategies shaped and elaborated in literary discourse and other genres.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (November 24, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521370019
• ISBN-13: 978-0521370011
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,873,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Deborah Tannen is the acclaimed author of You Just Don't Understand, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly four years including eight months as #1; the ten-week New York Times bestseller You're Wearing THAT?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation; I Only Say This Because I Love You: Talking to Your Parents, Partner, Sibs and Kids When You're All Adults, which won the Books for a Better Life Award; Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work; That's Not What I Meant!; and many other books. A professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, she has written for and been featured in newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Time, and Newsweek. She appears frequently on TV and radio, including such shows as 20/20, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Colbert Report, Nightline, Today, Good Morning America, and NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. She is university professor and professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, and has been McGraw Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton University. She lives with her husband in the Washington, D.C., area.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an important topic for serious students of social meaning, February 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue and Imagery in Conversational Discourse (Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics) (Paperback)

Readers who expect gender-difference discussion will be disappointed; this book's topic is very different, though equally important. Tannen shows that repetition of key pieces of a speaker's utterance are useful in a variety of ways: they maintain a topic, allow turn-taking which supports the story-teller, and reinforce a speaker's point. She also demonstrates how repetition and other cooperative strategies help conversational partners negotiate meaning together.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tannen's Best Book By Far, October 21, 2010

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This review is from: Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse (Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics) (Paperback)

I've read all of Dr. Tannen's books, and "Tannen fans" love to quip that we wish we could bring her along to business and social functions to let us know what's really going on beneath our conversations! Of all the things she's been called, perhaps the most accurate is a translator-- par excellance. While all of Deb's books are "user friendly" and have immense value for dialogue in important relationships like our jobs, marriages, loves, friends... etc., the present volume is her "academic opus," containing many of the foundational premises for her never ending astuteness when it comes to linguistics. Time after time Tannen nails the deep undercurrents of semiotics, syntax, and especially context. She's now written about sisters and sisters, significant others, men and women, kids and parents, and cultural differences. But I've always been anxious for a "deeper read," since we all sense she has some natural gift for seeing many levels down in conversation analysis in addition to her linguistic training. Although Talking Voices focuses on reported dialog, political speeches, repetitive structures in different contexts, etc. in a very deeply nuanced and tightly researched referenced fashion, Doc Tannen also manages to convey her wonderful insights with her usual down to earth, example-filled brillance, keeping us moving along like the book was a page turner rather than a deep exploration of linguistic structures.

Topics include constructed dialog (making the very relevant point that NO reportage of a dialogue is EVER accurate because subtle contextual differences exponentially change meaning), scenes and music, sound and senses, repetition in many forms with numerous underlying strategies, imitation, storytelling, the function of detail, the functions of verbal image creation, and much more. At the end, Tannen proposes the possiblity of a more "humanistic linguistics." Her idea is, using the success of literary linguistic models of involvement, to create a linguistic analysis frame that allows for beauty, art and other "soulful" aspects of dialogue. Given the move of linguistics into text processors, algorithms, affective programming and other machine interfaces, her proposal is nothing short of "the lion lying down with the lamb." Not a self help book, but full of insights on every page just like her other books, giving us a peek into her deeper analytic currents. Instead of bringing out a bunch of "big guns" in the form of esoteric jargon, she takes her own advice about humanity and keeps the analysis within the reach of us mortals who haven't spent a lifetime on the jargon. This doesn't take away one ounce from the depth or value. Highly recommended for all who seek insights into why and how we say and think as we do. Keep your muse, Deb, and thanks for not "writing down" to us.