Small Talk in the Workplace. A Corpus-Based Study.

This book investigates small talk among coworkers, revealing how it is intertwined with their daily routines and task–oriented exchanges. The study, based on the Small Talk at Work (STW) sub–corpus is culled from the AAC and Non–AAC Workplace Corpus (ANAWC, Pickering & Bruce, 2009). Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, it explores constituting elements and discursive strategies individuals employ when talking at work. It also identifies preferred topics of conversation, along with interaction patterns, greeting routines, and their functions. Moreover, the work examines the influence of gender, humor, and disability on these daily interactions. In particular, the observation of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device users’ access and use of small talk provides a first understanding of the strategies through which AAC device users build and consolidate their membership in their workplace.