Quote of the Day: Dwight Bolinger
"[Speech] informs sometimes...but much of the time its aim is to cajole, persuade, entreat, excuse, cow, deceive, or merely to maintain contact."
This is from Dwight Bolinger's classic Intonation and its Parts. I want to say it was originally published in the '70s but Amazon has a copy from 1989.
Basically, academics everywhere concur that mostly, we don't talk to actually exchange information but for a variety of reasons, like to get you to give me that biscuit. No, the one of the left. No, your left. That one with the big piece of white chocolate on top. Ya. Thanks, dude. So, when your Mother said, "Do you think I'm talking to hear myself speak?" she very likely could have been.
