This innovative work provides the first comprehensive account of general extenders ("or something", "and stuff", "or whatever"). Combining insights from linguistics, cognitive psychology, and interactional sociolinguistics, the author demonstrates that these small phrases are not simply vague expressions, but have a powerful role in making interpersonal communication work. The audience for this book includes linguists, scholars of English, teachers of English as a first and a second language, sociolinguists, psycholinguists, and communications researchers.

The Routledge Modern German Reader is designed for intermediate and advanced learners of German. It provides a clear and engaging introduction to reading authentic German language texts for learners who wish to move beyond elementary course material to more rewarding works of fiction and non-fiction. Features include: twenty-eight readings, graded according to difficulty, beginning with shorter, simpler texts and progressing to longer, more complex texts fourteen literary texts, written by well-known writers from German-speaking countries, on universal themes and fourteen non-literary texts from magazines, newspapers and the internet, featuring a range of engaging topics relating to culture, society and history varied, contextualized pre- and post- reading exercises designed to stimulate discussion, develop comprehension strategies, expand and refine vocabulary, and foster awareness of grammatical structures as they occur in authentic contexts a German-English glossary with separate vocabulary lists for each chapter and a complete answer key available at www.routledge.com/products/9781138898035 Suitable for both classroom use and independent study, The Routledge Modern German Reader provides insights into the culture of German-speaking countries while also acting as a stimulus to further independent reading. It is an essential tool for developing vocabulary and increasing reading proficiency.

The Routledge Modern German Reader is designed for intermediate and advanced learners of German. It provides a clear and engaging introduction to reading authentic German language texts for learners who wish to move beyond elementary course material to more rewarding works of fiction and non-fiction. Features include: twenty-eight readings, graded according to difficulty, beginning with shorter, simpler texts and progressing to longer, more complex texts fourteen literary texts, written by well-known writers from German-speaking countries, on universal themes and fourteen non-literary texts from magazines, newspapers and the internet, featuring a range of engaging topics relating to culture, society and history varied, contextualized pre- and post- reading exercises designed to stimulate discussion, develop comprehension strategies, expand and refine vocabulary, and foster awareness of grammatical structures as they occur in authentic contexts a German-English glossary with separate vocabulary lists for each chapter and a complete answer key available at www.routledge.com/products/9781138898035 Suitable for both classroom use and independent study, The Routledge Modern German Reader provides insights into the culture of German-speaking countries while also acting as a stimulus to further independent reading. It is an essential tool for developing vocabulary and increasing reading proficiency.

General extenders are phrases like 'or something', 'and everything', 'and things (like that)', 'and stuff (like that)', and 'and so on'. Although they are an everyday feature of spoken language, are crucial in successful interpersonal communication, and have multiple functions in discourse, they have so far gone virtually unnoticed in linguistics. This pioneering work provides a comprehensive description of this new linguistic category. It offers new insights into ongoing changes in contemporary English, the effect of grammaticalization, novel uses as associative plural markers and indicators of intertextuality, and the metapragmatic role of extenders in interaction. The forms and functions of general extenders are presented clearly and accessibly, enabling students to understand a number of different frameworks of analysis in discourse-pragmatic studies. From an applied perspective, the book presents a description of translation equivalents, an analysis of second language variation, and practical exercises for teaching second language learners of English.