Dr Gerard O'Grady is a Lecturer in the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University, UK

"Taking David Brazil's ground-breaking work on the grammar of speech as a starting point, O'Grady makes an important contribution to the analysis of unfolding real-time language. He assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Brazil's grammar and goes on to offer a developed version, using evidence from a corpus of read aloud speech. Perhaps his main contribution is in placing intonation more centrally in the description. His work will be of relevance to all whose interests are in understanding speech as process rather than product and the role of intonation in discourse."

• 1. Introduction: the organisation of spoken discourse; 2. A review of A Grammar of Speech; 3. The psychological foundations of the grammar; 4. A linear grammar of speech; 5. The corpus and its coding; 6. Increments and tone; 7. Key and termination within and between increments; 8. Reviewing, looking forward and practical applications; Bibliography; Index.