I am on the faculty of the Rhetoric Program at Carnegie Mellon University, where I
teach courses in discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, style, and research methods. I am
currently Editor of the journal Language in Society, and I am working on a project about
the enregisterment of dialect in Pittsburgh. I am interested in the connections between
discourse and place and in the role of the individual in language and linguistic theory.
My previous work has been in these areas: 

- Discourse structure and function Forms and functions of narrative; women's and
men's narrative; functions of repetition in discourse and their implications for
linguistic theory; cross-cultural study of rhetorical discourse; current work on the
individual voice in linguistic and rhetorical theory, on the rhetorical construction of
place and local identity through discourse about local speech in Pittsburgh. 

- Sociolinguistics. Regional/social variation in discourse structure and strategy;
interactional sociolinguistics; ethnography of communication; gender and regional
variation in discourse style; methodology in qualitative sociolinguistics; current work
on urban North Midland English in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Editor, Language in Society,
2005-present. 

- Rhetoric, history and theory. Persuasive talk; cross-cultural study of persuasive
styles in the U.S. and the Middle East; revised and edited my sister's doctoral
thesis on journal-keeping for posthumous publication. 

You can find links to some of my forthcoming and published work on this site. If you
would like a copy of anything that is not available here, whether for copyright reasons
or because I haven't uploaded it yet, please don't hesitate to email me. (I
cannot provide copies of books, unfortunately.)

Apologizing

Arabic discourse

PDF

'Orality' and discourse structrure in Modern Standard Arabic, Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics I (1990)
 

PDF

Linguistic Strategies and Cultural Styles for Persuasive Discourse, Language, Communication, and Culture: Current Directions (1989)
 

PDF

Presentation as proof: The language of Arabic rhetoric, Anthropological linguistics (1983)
 

Discourse analysis for rhetorical studies

PDF

Stance, Style, and the Linguistic Individual, Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Stance, (2009)
 

PDF

Reasons for Reason-Giving in a Public-opinion Survey (with Martha S. Cheng), Argumentation (2002)
 

Discourse, place, and dialect

PDF

Indexing the Local, Handbook of Language and Globalization (2010)
 
Language and Geographical Space, Language and Space: An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation (2010)
 

PDF

Language and Place, Cambridge Handbook of Sociolinguistics (2010)
 
Locating language in identity, Language and Identity (2010)
 

PDF

New Questions for Chinese Discourse Studies: Language, Space, and Place, Journal of Chinese Sociolinguistics (2010)
 

Gender and language

PDF

Gender, politeness, and discourse management in same-sex and cross-sex opinion-poll interviews (with Kathleen M. Ferrara and Judith M. Bean), Journal of Pragmatics (1992)
 

Media

PDF

Do You Speak Pittsburghese? Media Technology and Metalinguistic Expertise, American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, Nov. 2008 (2008)
 

Method

PDF

Dell Hymes and the Ethnography of Communication (with Marcellino William), The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics (2010)
 

PDF

New Questions for Chinese Discourse Studies: Language, Space, and Place, Journal of Chinese Sociolinguistics (2010)
 
In the Profession: Choosing the Right Journal for your Manuscript, Journal of English Linguistics (2009)
 

PDF

Some Personal Reflections on Rhetoric and Interdisciplinary, Plenary speech for Rhetoric Society of America Institute, June 26, 2009 (2009)
 

PDF

Indexicality and Experience: Variation and Identity in Pittsburgh (with Scott F. Kiesling), Journal of Sociolinguistics (2008)
 

Narrative

PDF

Discourse analysis and narrative, Handbook of discourse analysis (2004)
 

PDF

Social characteristics and self-expression in narrative, Journal of Narrative and Life History (1997)
 

PDF

Southern speech and self-expression in an African-American woman's story, Language Variety in the South Revisited (1997)
 

Persuasion

PDF

Do You Speak Pittsburghese? Media Technology and Metalinguistic Expertise, American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, Nov. 2008 (2008)
 

PDF

Linguistic Strategies and Cultural Styles for Persuasive Discourse, Language, Communication, and Culture: Current Directions (1989)
 

PDF

Presentation as proof: The language of Arabic rhetoric, Anthropological linguistics (1983)
 

Pittsburgh speech

Pittsburghese shirts: Commodification and the enregisterment of an urban dialect, American Speech (2009)
This article considers a type of material artifact that circulates ideas about regional speech in...
 

PDF

Do You Speak Pittsburghese? Media Technology and Metalinguistic Expertise, American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, Nov. 2008 (2008)
 

PDF

Indexicality and Experience: Variation and Identity in Pittsburgh (with Scott F. Kiesling), Journal of Sociolinguistics (2008)
 

PDF

How to Speak Like a Pittsburgher: Exploring the Role of a Folk Dictionary in the Production of a Dialect, Paper presented at Sociolinguistics Symposium 16, Limerick, Ireland (2006)
 

PDF

Mobility, Indexicality, and the Enregisterment of “Pittsburghese.” (with Jennifer Andrus and Andrew E. Danielson), Journal of English Linguistics (2006)
 

Public-opinion polling

PDF

Reasons for Reason-Giving in a Public-opinion Survey (with Martha S. Cheng), Argumentation (2002)
 

PDF

Gender, politeness, and discourse management in same-sex and cross-sex opinion-poll interviews (with Kathleen M. Ferrara and Judith M. Bean), Journal of Pragmatics (1992)
 

Repetition in discourse

PDF

Linguistic Strategies and Cultural Styles for Persuasive Discourse, Language, Communication, and Culture: Current Directions (1989)
 

PDF

Presentation as proof: The language of Arabic rhetoric, Anthropological linguistics (1983)
 

Reviews

Rhetoric

PDF

Some Personal Reflections on Rhetoric and Interdisciplinary, Plenary speech for Rhetoric Society of America Institute, June 26, 2009 (2009)
 

PDF

Linguistic Strategies and Cultural Styles for Persuasive Discourse, Language, Communication, and Culture: Current Directions (1989)
 

Texas women

PDF

Stance, Style, and the Linguistic Individual, Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Stance, (2009)
 

PDF

Lingual biography and linguistic variation, Language sciences (1999)
 

PDF

Uses of Southern-sounding speech by contemporary Texas women, Journal of Sociolinguistics (1999)
 

PDF

Self-expression and linguistic variation (with Judith M. Bean), Language in Society (1997)
 

The linguistic individual

PDF

Stance, Style, and the Linguistic Individual, Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Stance, (2009)
 

PDF

The Individual, Key Terms in Language and Culture (2001)
 

PDF

The Individual Voice in Language, Annual Review of Anthropology (2000)
 

PDF

Lingual biography and linguistic variation, Language sciences (1999)
 

PDF

Language, culture, and self in language learning, CALR Occasional Papers in Language and Urban Culture (1997)