Conversation: Cognitive, Communicative, and Social Perspectives (Typological Studies in Language)

This volume aims to challenge some of the prevailing dichotomies in discourse studies, such as: the cleavage between the study of information flow and the study of social interaction; the theoretical division between speech-situation and cognitive models; the methodological split between the study of spontaneous conversation in natural context and the study of speech production and comprehension under controlled experimental conditions; and the rigid genre distinction between narrative and conversational discourse. The text argues that the time has come to work toward an integrated approach to the study of human communication, one that will be less dependent on narrow reductions.