Böcker av Michael (University of Melbourne) Clyne

Exploring practices in the family, school, university, the workplace and in letters, this book reveals patterns in the varied ways people choose to address one another, from pronouns to first names, from honorifics to titles and last names. The authors use examples from English, French, German and Swedish.

In this interdisciplinary study, Professor Clyne examines the impact of cultural values on discourse. Through an exploration of the role of verbal communication patterns in successful and unsuccessful communication, he sets out to integrate and develop a framework for a linguistics of inter-cultural communication. Professor Clyne draws on data derived from recordings of spontaneous communication in the Australian workplace between people of vastly differing backgrounds, notably European and Asian, who use English as a lingua franca. This study offers both a pragmatic and a discourse perspective, not simply analysing data but seeking to extend the theoretical model. The rapidly increasing use of English as a language of inter-cultural communication between non-native speakers means that the issues raised here will be of interest not only to linguists but also to those involved in education, business and industry.

Written by a leading expert in the field, this much-needed account brings together disparate findings to examine the dynamics of contact between languages in an immigrant context and asks how and why some languages survive longer than others in such a context.