Interactional Linguistics: Studying Language in Social Interaction Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen and Margret Selting is the first English-language textbook that is fully devoted to interactional linguistics. This reference work is intended for students and professionals who want to study language in social interaction.
The book provides an overview of theory and methodology in interactional linguistics and offers detailed analyses of conversation phenomena such as turn-taking, repairs, action formation, and sequence organization. Various units of language, from sentences to particles, are discussed in terms of their function in interaction. A concluding chapter highlights the broader implications of this approach for understanding language variation and universals.
As the first textbook dedicated to interactional linguistics, this work also includes online supplementary chapters on preference, stance, prosody, and storytelling. Examples and transcripts from everyday conversations make it an essential textbook for courses in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and linguistic anthropology.
The book aligns thematically with topics in sociolinguistics, linguistics, and language studies, making it a valuable source for higher education and research.