David Crystal - Lets Talk: How English Conversation Works

English has no shortage of words to describe conversations, and our manner of speaking, and no shortage of authors who have reflected on them. Some examples:

badinage, banter, blether, blurt, burble...

Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising every day while they live. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life)

The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard. (William Hazlitt, The Plain Speaker)

...chaff, chat, chatter, chit-chat, chitter-chatter, confab...

So, let me show you how a conversation works. I say something, and then you say something back that actually relates to what I was talking about, as if you were even the least bit interested.

Huh? I say. (Jodi Picoult, Between the Lines)

Whenever Percy stopped by to see her [Annabeth], she was so lost in thought that the conversation went something like this:

Percy: Hey, hows it going?

Annabeth: Uh, no thanks.

Percy: Okay...have you eaten anything today?

Annabeth: I think Leo is on duty. Ask him.

Percy: So, my hair is on fire.

Annabeth: Okay, in a while. (Rick Riordan, The Mark of Athena)

...gab, gas, go on, gossip, gush...

The whole force of conversation depends on how much you can take for granted. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table)

It does seem so pleasant to talk with an old acquaintance that knows what you know. I see so many of these new folks nowadays, that seem to have neither past nor future. Conversations got to have some root in the past, or else youve got to explain every remark you make, an it wears a person out. (Sarah Orne Jewitt, The Country of Pointed Firs)

...harangue, heads-up, heart-to-heart, hint, hot air...

Galinda didnt often stop to consider whether she believed in what she said or not; the whole point of conversations was flow. (Gregory Maguire, Wicked)

Everybody talks, but there is no conversation. (Dejan Stojanovic, The Sun Watches the Sun)

...jabber, jaw, jeer, jest, joke, kid, mock...

Conversation is like playing tennis with a ball made of Krazy Putty that keeps coming back over the net in a different shape. (David Lodge, Small World)

Conversation should be like juggling; up go the balls and plates, up and over, in and out, good solid objects that glitter in the footlights and fall with a bang if you miss them. (Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited)

...natter, parley, pillow talk, powwow, prattle...

Conversation needs pauses, thoughts need time to make love. (Theodore Zeldin, Conversation)

...ramble, rant, rave, repartee, rib...

Conversation is never easy for the British, who are never keen to express themselves to strangers or, for that matter, anyone, even themselves. (Malcolm Bradbury, Rates of Exchange)

...small-talk, spout, table talk, tattle, tell-tale, tte--tte, yak, yap, yarn

What are the factors that motivate so many different kinds of talk? What are the rules that we use unconsciously, even in the most routine exchanges of everyday conversation? We think of conversation as something spontaneous, instinctive, habitualthe most fruitful and natural play of the mind, as Montaigne put it in one of his essays. But there are rulesor, if that word is too strong, conventions, fashions, expectations. Conversation has been described as an art, as a game, sometimes even as a battle. Whichever metaphor we use, most people are unaware of what the rules are, how they work, and how we can bend and break them when circumstances warrant it. The analysis of conversation turns out to be one of the most fascinating in linguistic study for that very reason.

When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather. (Dr Johnson,