This volume aims at analyzing the relationship between the dialogical accomplishment of spoken talk-in-interaction on the one hand and entrenched patterns of linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge (constructions, frames, and communicative genres) on the other. The contributions analyze linguistic patterns in different languages such as English, French, German, and Swedish. Methodologically, they take up the usage-based position that structural and functional aspects of language use need to be studied empirically and "bottom-up": Since grammatical structure arises as the entrenched result of recurrent language use, its study should start with the local organization of natural talk-in-interaction before moving on to more complex and abstract relationships between linguistic structure, linguistic meaning, and socio-cultural activity/event patterns. Furthermore, they argue that Dialogism provides a promising starting point for a usage-based approach to linguistic patterns as both emerging (i.e. constructed in response to the situational circumstances of talk-in-interaction) and emergent (i.e. constructed with regard to symbolic units as parts of socially and culturally shared knowledge).

This collection of essays on gender linguistics presents various perspectives on practices of linguistic construction of gender identity. The articles describe current methodological and theoretical approaches to analyzing the relationship between language and gender, discuss current issues, and sketch out new perspectives on linguistic gender construction in media contexts, in face-to-face interactions, and in the interplay of language systems and usage.

For a number of years, there has been concernin Germany about the decline of language . From a linguistic perspective, this hypothesis cannot be substantiated. Public debate, however, does raise some new questions about the stability and mutability of language norms. This volume undertakes a linguistic examination of the relationship between empiricism and standards in various forms and domains of communication."

The papers in this volume study linguistic structures in the context of their interactive functions and usages; they concentrate on grammatical constructions for the positioning of self and others. Using empirical analyses of positioning constructions, the authors show that forms and functions of grammatical structures in everyday interactions are closely interwoven with the conditions for the production and reception of spoken language. In order to take account of the tension between the stabilisation of grammatical constructions and the process of their actualisation in interactions, the authors combine methods from Interactional Linguistics with insights from usage-based positions of both Construction Grammar and Cognitive Grammar.

On the basis of a study of reproach activities ('in situ reproaches', 'mock reproaches' and reconstructions of previous reproach interactions in 'complaint stories') the monograph examines prosodic, grammatical, rhetorical/stylistic processes and their functions in everyday usage. Following an analysis of the constitution of these reproach genres the study charts the consequences for a theory of communicative practice and discusses aspects such as the genre-specific function of grammatical structures, the interaction between prosodic and syntactic procedures in the production of communicative meaning, and the role of indexical signs in the negotiation of meaning.

Arbeiten zur Syntax gesprochener Sprache verdeutlichen immer wieder, dass Interagierende sich sowohl bei der Produktion als auch Rezeption von AEusserungen an konstruktionellen Schemata ("constructions") orientieren. Mit dem vorliegenden Sammelband werden systematische Vernetzungsmoeglichkeiten zwischen Ansatzen der "Construction Grammar" und interaktional ausgerichteten Studien zur Grammatik der gesprochenen Sprache aufgezeigt. Die empirischen Analysen widmen sich verfestigten Konstruktionen unterschiedlicher Komplexitat in deutschen und englischen Kommunikationssituationen. Statt grammatische Strukturen, ihre Formen und Funktionen kontextlosgeloest zu betrachten, studieren die Beitrager Grammatik im konkreten Interaktionsprozess und beziehen dabeibislang meist ausgesparte Phanomene wie die Prosodie, die Dialogizitat und die Prozesshaftigkeit sprachlichen Handelns in die Analyse grammatischer Konstruktionen mit ein.