Why do doctors sound so professional and competent, even when you are sure that they do not really know what they're talking about? How to people manage to take control of any conversation? What similarities are there between the language that market traders use to sell dodgy goods and the language politicians use to woo potential voters?

'All Talk' is a book about how language is used in everyday life - words and their hidden meanings, questions and answers, insults and replies, chat-up lines, Irish jokes, sales patter, slips of the tongue, lies, casual talk, professional talk, political talk, dinner party talk, interview talk.

REVIEWS

This book provides a rich mine for specialist and non-specialist readers. The wealth of examples sensitises one to the platitudes and idiosyncrasies of speech as much as to the attitudes and motives of our fellow communicators. But for all its lucid style there are provocative discussions about both methodology and theoretical explanations which reflect the excitement of the research endeavour of this multi-faceted phenomenon.’
The Psychologist, 1989