That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships
The bestselling linguistics professor examines how we communicate with each other and how you can maintain an effective conversation.
At home, on the job, in a personal relationship, it's often not what you say but how you say it that counts.
Deborah Tannen revolutionized our thinking about relationships between women and men in her #1 bestseller You Just Don't Understand. In That's Not What I Meant!, the internationally renowned sociolinguist and expert on communication demonstrates how our conversational signals—voice level, pitch and intonation, rhythm and timing, even the simple turns of phrase we choose—are powerful factors in the success or failure of any relationship. Regional speech characteristics, ethnic and class backgrounds, age, and individual personality all contribute to diverse conversational styles that can lead to frustration and misplaced blame if ignored—but provide tools to improve relationships if they are understood.
At once eye-opening, astute, and vastly entertaining, Tannen's classic work on interpersonal communication will help you to hear what isn't said and to recognize how your personal conversational style meshes or clashes with others. It will give you a new understanding of communication that will enable you to make the adjustments that can save a conversation . . . or a relationship.
"Tannen combines a novelist's ear for the way people speak with a rare power of original analysis. . . . Fascinating." —Oliver Sacks
"We are, all of us, foreigners to each other: editor and writer, man and woman, Californian and New Yorker, friend and friend. Dr. Tannen shows us how different we are, and how to speak the same language." —Jack Rosenthal, Pulitzer Prize winner and editor, The New York Times
"Tannen has a marvelous ear for the way real people express themselves and a scientist's command of the inner structures of speech and human relationships." —Los Angeles Times
1100050547
That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships
The bestselling linguistics professor examines how we communicate with each other and how you can maintain an effective conversation.
At home, on the job, in a personal relationship, it's often not what you say but how you say it that counts.
Deborah Tannen revolutionized our thinking about relationships between women and men in her #1 bestseller You Just Don't Understand. In That's Not What I Meant!, the internationally renowned sociolinguist and expert on communication demonstrates how our conversational signals—voice level, pitch and intonation, rhythm and timing, even the simple turns of phrase we choose—are powerful factors in the success or failure of any relationship. Regional speech characteristics, ethnic and class backgrounds, age, and individual personality all contribute to diverse conversational styles that can lead to frustration and misplaced blame if ignored—but provide tools to improve relationships if they are understood.
At once eye-opening, astute, and vastly entertaining, Tannen's classic work on interpersonal communication will help you to hear what isn't said and to recognize how your personal conversational style meshes or clashes with others. It will give you a new understanding of communication that will enable you to make the adjustments that can save a conversation . . . or a relationship.
"Tannen combines a novelist's ear for the way people speak with a rare power of original analysis. . . . Fascinating." —Oliver Sacks
"We are, all of us, foreigners to each other: editor and writer, man and woman, Californian and New Yorker, friend and friend. Dr. Tannen shows us how different we are, and how to speak the same language." —Jack Rosenthal, Pulitzer Prize winner and editor, The New York Times
"Tannen has a marvelous ear for the way real people express themselves and a scientist's command of the inner structures of speech and human relationships." —Los Angeles Times
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That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships

That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships

by Deborah Tannen
That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships

That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships

by Deborah Tannen

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Overview

The bestselling linguistics professor examines how we communicate with each other and how you can maintain an effective conversation.
At home, on the job, in a personal relationship, it's often not what you say but how you say it that counts.
Deborah Tannen revolutionized our thinking about relationships between women and men in her #1 bestseller You Just Don't Understand. In That's Not What I Meant!, the internationally renowned sociolinguist and expert on communication demonstrates how our conversational signals—voice level, pitch and intonation, rhythm and timing, even the simple turns of phrase we choose—are powerful factors in the success or failure of any relationship. Regional speech characteristics, ethnic and class backgrounds, age, and individual personality all contribute to diverse conversational styles that can lead to frustration and misplaced blame if ignored—but provide tools to improve relationships if they are understood.
At once eye-opening, astute, and vastly entertaining, Tannen's classic work on interpersonal communication will help you to hear what isn't said and to recognize how your personal conversational style meshes or clashes with others. It will give you a new understanding of communication that will enable you to make the adjustments that can save a conversation . . . or a relationship.
"Tannen combines a novelist's ear for the way people speak with a rare power of original analysis. . . . Fascinating." —Oliver Sacks
"We are, all of us, foreigners to each other: editor and writer, man and woman, Californian and New Yorker, friend and friend. Dr. Tannen shows us how different we are, and how to speak the same language." —Jack Rosenthal, Pulitzer Prize winner and editor, The New York Times
"Tannen has a marvelous ear for the way real people express themselves and a scientist's command of the inner structures of speech and human relationships." —Los Angeles Times

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062210111
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication date: 02/27/2024
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 228
File size: 960 KB

About the Author

About The Author

Deborah Tannen is Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Her books include the New York Times bestsellers You Just Don't Understand, You're Wearing THAT?, Talking from 9 to 5, and You Were Always Mom's Favorite!. She has written for and been featured in numerous major newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, the Washington Post, and Time.

Hometown:

Washington, D.C. metro area

Date of Birth:

June 7, 1945

Place of Birth:

Brooklyn, New York

Education:

B.A., Harpur College, 1966, Wayne State University, 1970; M.A. in Linguistics, UC Berkeley, 1976; Ph.D., 1979

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

I Linguistics And Conversational Style 15

1 The Problem Is The Process 17

2 The Workings Of Conversational Style 29

3 Conversational Signals And Devices 45

Part I Conversational Signals 47

Part II Conversational Devices At Work 54

II Conversational Strategies 63

4 Why We Don't Say What We Mean 65

Part I Why We Won't Say What We Mean 66

Part II Why We Can't Say What We Mean 71

5 Framing And Reframing 82

6 Power And Solidarity 101

III Talking At Home: Conversational Style in Close Relationships 119

7 Why Things Get Worse 121

8 Talk In The Intimate Relationship: His And Hers 133

9 The Intimate Critic 152

IV What You Can And Can't Do With Conversational Style 175

10 Talking About Ways Of Talking 177

Notes 201

Bibliography 206

Index 209

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