Conversation in Context: A Corpus-driven Approach

Ruhlemann offers an examination of real-life speech data from the British National Corpus to show how language is used in natural conversation. The text is based on the thesis completed by the author for a PhD in English linguistics from Ludwig-Maximilians U., Munich. The study provides an overview of characteristic features of British conversation, describes the use of some frequent conversational features that have to-date not been systematically researched using corpus linguistic methods, and explores social differentiation in the use of selected features of British conversation. The author also tests the hypothesis that a situation-based description of conversation can demonstrate how conversational language is adapted to certain needs arising from specific types of constraints on speakers in conversational situations. For academics researching corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dr Christoph Rüehlemann has a PhD in English Linguistics from Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich and is an English and German teacher.