How We Talk: The Inner Workings of Conversation

An expert guide to how conversation works, from how we know when to speak to why huh is a universal word
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 revolutionizes our understanding of conversation. In the process, Enfield reveals what makes language universally--and uniquely--human.

• How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention
• Talk: The Science of Conversation
• Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
• Making Sense of Language: Readings in Culture and Communication
• Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology (Primers in Anthropology)
• Designing Voice User Interfaces: Principles of Conversational Experiences
• Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language
• Ubiquitous Voice: Essays from the Field
• Designing Bots: Creating Conversational Experiences
• Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship (The MIT Press)