Introduction: Family Talk Chapter uri icon

abstract

  • Abstract This book brings together a variety of linguistic studies on family talk based on a single set of data: the naturally occurring, face-to-face interactions of four American families. The studies emerged from a three-year sociolinguistic project carried out at Georgetown University to examine how parents in dual-income families use language to constitute their identities as parents and professionals at home and at work, as well as the interactional and social consequences of these ways of speaking. Three broad themes emerged in the considerations of family discourse in these four families: the underlying dynamics of power and solidarity in the family context in general, and in the interactional framing of individual and shared family identities in particular; the negotiation of gendered identities in conjunction with family identities, especially in relation to the challenges faced by dual-income couples; and the complex discursive means through which family members actively assert, negotiate, and confirm their family's beliefs and values when children are present to create individual and shared family identities.

author list (cited authors)

  • Tannen, D., Kendall, S., & Gordon, C.

citation count

  • 3

complete list of authors

  • Tannen, Deborah||Kendall, Shari||Gordon, Cynthia

Book Title

  • Family Talk

publication date

  • January 2007