Spoken Language Pragmatics: Analysis of Form-Function Relations

This volume provides a detailed analysis of the relationships between form and function in spontaneous spoken language. The contributors analyse English, German and Spanish data to present a multilingual perspective on the complexities facing speakers in a variety of contexts. Through an examination of the language of everyday conversation, interviews, consultations, task-based dialogues, football commentaries, radio-play productions and intercultural conversations, the book demonstrates the effect of informational, discourse-external and personal factors on form and shows how speakers position themselves in relation to their discourse, orchestrate different tasks, move between different ‘voices’, and negotiate meaning. The result is a comprehensive analysis of the multiple layers of spontaneous spoken language. Spoken Language Pragmatics presents research that will be of interest to academics working in linguistics, applied linguistics, discourse analysis and pragmatics.