Women Talk

Jennifer Coates isis Professor of English Language and Linguistics at University of Surrey, Roehampton.

"Coates's book is an extraordinary study of the discourse of female friendships, based on recordings of a large number of naturally-occurring same-sex conversations among female and (for comparison) male friends, supplemented by ethnographic interviews with the same and other women, and analyzed by means of discourse analysis ... In empirical terms, Coates has provided a detailed analysis of the linguistic strategies making up this discourse of solidarity, the collaborative floor." Bent Preisler, University of Roskilde "While this text is important reading for specialists in discourse, it is accessible to lay readers as well, so it is both an important research text as well as a good tool to use in introducing students to discourse analysis" Timothy Frazer, Western Illinois University"Jennifer Coates celebrates and describes friendships and talk among women; at the same time, she provides an argument for feminist ethnographic research methods. She writes a clear, detailed and rich study based on the transcripts of 20 conversations among women, and on the transcripts of interviews with 15 women .... Women Talk is likely to become a pivotal publication.....This book offers a very useful conversation about women friends' talk." Cheris Kramarae, University of Illinois

• Acknowledgements viiNotes on the Transcription of the Conversations xTranscription Conventions xii1 ‘This is on tape you know’ 1The origins of the book2 ‘She’s just a very very special person to me’ 16Talk and women’s friendship3 ‘We never stop talking’ 44Talk and women’s friendships4 ‘We talk about everything and anything’ 68An overview of the conversations5 ‘D’you know what my mother did recently?’ 94Telling our stories6 ‘The feminine shape … is more melding in together’ 117The organization of friendly talk7 ‘You know so I mean I probably …’ 152Hedges and hedging8 ‘It was dreadful wasn’t it?’ 174Women and questions9 ‘I just kept drinking and drinking and drinking’ 203Repetition and textual coherence10 ‘Thank god I’m a woman’ 232The construction of differing femininities11 ‘Talk’s absolutely fundamental’ 263Being a friendAppendices 287Notes 297Bibliography 311Index 320