Tannen collects five of her published essays on gender and language, which provide a background as well as a response to her bestselling You Just Don't Understand (1990). She adds an introduction that discusses the surprising reactions to that book and explains how these essays deal with the questions raised by the book's critics.

"A clear and cogent synthesis of important research in linguistics discourse analysis and gender studies."--Bennett Rafoth, Indiana University of Pennsylvania "Excellent book....The topic of genderlects simply cannot be approached without reference to Tannen, and this book gathers together some of her most impressive findings."--bridget Drinka, University of Texas at San Antonio "I...found the contents to be lucidly written and to have extremely significant relevance to interdisciplinary communications studies."--Harold Battersby, SUNY-Geneseo "A very interesting and useful book. I like the organization. It's up-to-date and thought-provoking."--Barbara Abbott, Michign State University "Great for use in a communication and gender course."--Judith Barnes, San Jose State University "Deborah Tannen is the archangel of clarity....She makes the art of listening less scary and more fascinating than any other sociolinguist or therapist writing today."--Los Angeles Times "Tannen explains the scholarly underpinnings of her bestseller You Just Don't Understand>"--The Washington Post "A useful thematic compilation for larger public and all academic libraries."--Library Journal "A mature and inspiring synthesis of rigorous method and humanistic as well as scientific goals."--Paul Friedrich, author of The Language Parallax "Tannen brings together five studies that bear on dominance vs. culture as interpretations of gender difference in languages, and frames the studies with an introduction addressing the debate. All concerned with the issue will need to address what she says."--Dell Hymes, author of Foundations in Sociolinguistics "Tannen's work provides a clear, precise, complete analysis of verbal and nonverbal communication, based on scientific evidence. Gender and Discourse is probably her best yet."--Mark Hickson, University of Alabama at Birmingham "A significant contribution to teaching about gender difference in communication. These highly readable chapters provide much valuable information for raising students' awareness."--Clifford E. Wexler, Columbia-Green Community College

Deborah Tannen is University Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University. She is the author of the best-selling You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse, That's Not What I Meant: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Your Relations With Others, Conversational Style: Analyzing Talk Among Friends, and most recently, Talking From 9 to 5: Women and Men in the Workplace: Language, Sex, and Power.