Through everyday talk, individuals forge the ties that can make a family. Family members use language to manage a household, create and maintain relationships, and negotiate and reinforce values and beliefs. The studies gathered in Family Talk are based on a unique research project in which four dual-income American families recorded everything they said for a week. Family Talk extends our understanding of family discourse and of how family membersconstruct, negotiate, and enact their identities as individuals and as families. The volume also contributes to the discourse analysis of naturally-occurring interaction and makes significant contributions to theoriesof framing in interaction. Family Talk addresses issues central to the academic discipline of discourse analysis as well as to families themselves, including decision-making and conflict-talk, the development of gendered family roles, sociability with and socialization of children, the development of social and political beliefs, and the interconnectedness of professional and family life. It provides illuminating insights into the subtleties of familyconversation, and will be of interest to scholars and students in sociolinguistics, discourse studies, communications, anthropological linguistics, cultural studies, psychology, and other fields concerned with thelanguage of everyday interaction or family interaction.
About the ContributorsTransciption Conventions1: Shari Kendall: Introduction: Family TalkPart 1: Interactional Dynamics: Power and Solidarity2: Deborah Tannen: Power Maneuvers and Connection Maneuvers in Family Interaction3: Deborah Tannen: Talking the Dog: Framing Pets as Interactional Resources in Family Discourse4: Cyntha Gordon: "I Feel Just Horribly Embarrassed When She Does That": Constituting a Mother's Identity5: Diana Marinova: Finding the Right Balance between Connection and Control: A Father's Identity Construction in Conversations with His College-Age DaughterPart II: Gendered Identities in Dual-Income Families6: Shari Kendall: Father as Breadwinner, Mother as Worker: Gendered Positions in Feminist and Traditional Discourses of Work and Family7: Alexandra Johnson: Gatekeeping in the Family: How Family Members Position One Another as Decision Makers8: Cynthia Gordon, Deborah Tannen, Aliza Sacknovitz: A Working Father: One Man's Talk About Parenting at WorkPart III: Family Values and Beliefs9: Cynthia Gordon: "Al Gore's Our Guy": Linguistically Constructing a Family Political Identity10: Philip LeVine: Sharing Common Ground: The Role of Place Reference in Parent-Child Conversation11: Alla V. Tovares: Family Members Interacting While Watching TVIndex
"This is a must read for linguists, and its multidisciplinary approach and accessibility recommend it to anyone studying or interested in family relationships. Highly recommended. All readers, all levels." --Choice
Deborah Tannen, Georgetown University) Tannen, Deborah (University Professor and Professor of Linguistics, University Professor and Professor of Linguistics
Cynthia Gordon, Syracuse University) Gordon, Cynthia (Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Communication and Rhetorical Studies