Subject: new book : language processes

social and cognitive approaches to interpersonal communication edited by susan r . fussell , carnegie mellon university roger j . kreuz , university of memphis historically , the social aspects of language use have been considered the domain of social psychology , while the underlying psycholinguistic mechanisms have been the purview of cognitive psychology . recently , however , it has become increasingly clear that these two dimensions are highly interrelated : cognitive mechanisms underlying speech production and comprehension interact with social psychological factors , such as beliefs about one 's interlocutors and politeness norms , and with the dynamics of the conversation itself , to produce shared meaning . this realization has led to an exciting body of research integrating the social and cognitive dimensions which has greatly increased our understanding of human language use . this volume contains a collection of papers by noted social and cognitive psychologists illustrating this theme . each chapter demonstrates how the theoretical approaches and research methods of social and cognitive psychology can be successfully interwoven to provide insight into one or more fundamental questions about the process of interpersonal communication . the topics under investigation include the nature and role of speaker intentions in the communicative process , the production and comprehension of indirect speech and figurative language , perspective-taking and conversational collaboration , and the relationships between language , cognition , culture , and social interaction . the book will be of interest to all those who study interpersonal language use : social and cognitive psychologists , theoretical and applied linguists , and communication researchers . 0-8058 - 2269 - 0 [ cloth ] / 1998 / 312pp . / $ 59 . 95 0-8058 - 2270 - 4 [ paper ] / 1998 / 312pp . / $ 32 . 50 lawrence erlbaum associates , inc . orders @ erlbaum . com
