ENGL 101 Chapter : Can T We Talk Tannen WORD Doc
15 Mar 2019
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"can"t we talk?" (condensed from: you just don"t understand) by deborah tannen. A married couple was in a car when the wife turned to her husband and asked, "would you like to stop for a coffee?" The wife, who had indeed wanted to stop, became annoyed because she felt her preference had not been considered. The husband, seeing his wife was angry, became frustrated. Unfortunately, he failed to see that his wife was asking the question not to get an instant decision, but to begin a negotiation. And the woman didn"t realize that when her husband said no, he was just expressing his preference, not making a ruling. When a man and woman interpret the same interchange in such conflicting ways, it"s no wonder they can find themselves leveling angry charges of selfishness and obstinacy at each other. As a specialist in linguistics, i have studied how the conversational styles of men and women differ.
