“Forms of talk” by Goffman

The third part of the book, the one about “footing”, makes this work particularly worth reading.

Starting from an episode involving President Nixon and a newspaper woman, Goffman manages to explain what footing is, namely “an alignment we take up to ourselves and the others present” (Goffman, 1981: 128).

This notion of footing may be particularly useful to explain language differences between different groups of people, since “change in footing is very commonly language-linked” (Goffman, 1981: 128). This was the case, for instance, in my Master’s degree thesis (see the Summary of my dissertation). And this may be the case in my PhD thesis, too (see the Project handout).

Worth of a note is also chapter 5 about radio talk, which offers an overview on the ways of our errors.

Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

One Response to ““Forms of talk” by Goffman”

1. Ilaria scrive:

   3 luglio 2009 alle 12:21

   La tesi l’hai scritta in inglese?
   Io l’ho fatta in italiano.
   Anch’io mi sono imbattuta nel “footing” di Goffman, nonché nelle definizioni dei ruoli del parlante: “animator”, “author” e “principal”.