Face-To-Face Dialogue: Theory, Research, and Applications

This Book Brings Together A Long-term Program Of Research Focused On A Single Question That I Have Pursued, Passionately And Stubbornly, Over Several Decades: What Makes Face-to-face Dialogue Unique? The Theory That Is Still Evolving From This Research Starts With The Premise, Shared With Many Language Scholars, That Face-to-face Dialogue Is The Basic And Prototypic Form Of Language Use. The Research Goes On To Identify And Explore The Two Resources-multi-modality And A High Level Of Reciprocity--that Do Not Occur In Combination In Any Other Form Of Language Use. Research Has Led To The Conclusion That Having A Face-to-face Dialogue Is The Fastest And Most Skillful Activity That Ordinary Humans Do In Real Time. To Study Face-to-face Dialogue Is To Enter And Explore A Micro-world That A Written Text Cannot Capture. The Microscope For Face-to-face Dialogue Includes Digitized Video, Appropriate Software, And Refocusing One's Mind From The Everyday Pace Of Events. The Website That Supplements This Book [oup Website] Demonstrates Microanalysis With Videos Of Most Of The Examples Described In The Text. The Ultimate Goal Of This Book Is For Readers To Appreciate Face-to-face Dialogue In The Several Senses Of The Word: To Be Able To Perceive To Apprehend Or Understand To Recognize The Significance Or Subtleties Of And To Recognize As Valuable Or Excellent.--