Praise for the previous edition:

"Affords major insights not only into ‘common talk’ but through and beyond this into the nature of language in general." Michael Halliday, University of Sydney, Australia

"A major step forward in conversation analysis, and gives desrved recognition to the remarkable linguistic creativity that exists in all of us.' David Crystal, University of Wales, Bangor, UK

"A delight to read." Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr., University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

"Reading this volume gives the same pleasure as dipping into a reference book on where words come from. It is fascinating and full of background interest ... It is an intriguing study, delving into how human beings use language and how every one of us is creative with it." – ESB

"The strength of this book is that Carter uses "real" evidence, transcriptions of conversations from the Cancode corpus, a 5-million-word computerised database that includes recordings from a variety of settings in the UK and Ireland. This broad-ranging approach makes the book a useful consciousness-raising exercise for beginner students." – Jean Aitchison, The Times Higher Education Supplement

"The book is a valuable new intervention which should be considered by all applied linguists for both the detail of its analyses and the larger questions it opens up." – BaaL News

‘Affords major insights not only into "common talk" but through and beyond this into the nature of language in general.’

M. A. K. Halliday, University of Sydney, Australia

‘A major step forward in conversation analysis, and gives deserved recognition to the remarkable linguistic creativity that exists in all of us.’

David Crystal, University of Wales, UK

‘A delight to read.’

Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr., University of California, USA

‘Reading this volume gives the same pleasure as dipping into a reference book on where words come from. It is fascinating and full of background interest ... It is an intriguing study, delving into how human beings use language and how every one of us is creative with it.’

ESB (English Speaking Board)

‘The strength of this book is that Carter uses "real" evidence, transcriptions of conversations from the Cancode corpus, a five-million-word computerised database that includes recordings from a variety of settings in the UK and Ireland. This broad-ranging approach makes the book a useful consciousness-raising exercise for beginner students.’

Jean Aitchison, The Times Higher Education Supplement

‘The book is a valuable new intervention which should be considered by all applied linguists for both the detail of its analyses and the larger questions it opens up.’

BaaL News

‘A deeply enriching work, and one that surprises and delights in its revelation of the sheer ingenuity of human interactions.’

Philip Martin, De Montfort University, UK