Provides a comprehensive review of the relationships between language and social behaviour. The papers will be of interest not only to psychologists concerned with language and social behaviour, but also to linguists, sociologists and social workers, anthropologists and psychiatrists

Provides a comprehensive review of the relationships between language and social behaviour. The papers will be of interest not only to psychologists concerned with language and social behaviour, but also to linguists, sociologists and social workers, anthropologists and psychiatrists.

"Topics covered include speech act theory and indirect speech acts, politeness and the interpersonal determinants of language, language and impression management and person perception, conversational structure, perspective taking, and language and social thought."--Jacket

This important handbook, with chapters written by leading experts in their fields, is concerned with the integration of verbal and nonverbal features in communication. Not just a collection of readings, it examines how verbal and nonverbal systems in communication work. Contributions combine solid reviews of the current research and findings as well as important theoretical and practical problems, with suggestions for future directions of research in the study of language and its use.

Language pervades everything we do as social beings. It is, in fact, difficult to disentangle language from social life, and hence its importance is often missed. The emergence of new communication technologies makes this even more striking. People come to "know" one another through these interactions without ever having met face-to-face. How? Through the words they use and the way they use them. The Oxford Handbook of Language and Social Psychology is a unique and innovative compilation of research that lies at the intersection of language and social psychology. Language is viewed as a social activity, and to understand this complex human activity requires a consideration of its social psychological underpinnings. Moreover, as a social activity, the use and in fact the existence of language has implications for a host of traditional social psychological processes. Hence, there is a reciprocal relationship between language and social psychology, and it is this reciprocal relationship that defines the essence of this handbook. The handbook is divided into six sections. The first two sections focus on the social underpinnings of language, that is, the social coordination required to use language, as well as the manner in which language and broad social dimensions such as culture mutually constitute one another. The next two sections consider the implications of language for a host of traditional social psychological topics, including both intraindividual (e.g., attribution) and interindividual (e.g., intergroup relations) processes. The fifth section examines the role of language in the creation of meaning, and the final section includes chapters documenting the importance of the language-social psychology interface for a number of applied areas.

A fascinating exploration of the relationship between gender and emotion.