I've seen a couple of references here to Deborah Tannen, a sociolinguist, and yet I've not read any of her work. Have some of you? I was recently in a training class in crucial conversations, and the facilitator was high on Deborah Tannen.

I read her for my linguistics degree. She's one of the foremost names in sociolinguistics.

I heard her speak at Mills College back in the '90s. She was a student of Robin Lakoff (of Cal), and she is quite the sociolinguist. She's written a couple of popular linguistics books, and some interesting monographs. I believe she's still teaching at Georgetown U. (I was at Cal at the same time as her, but didn't known her. She got her PhD the same year I graduated.)

So I am assuming you both have a great deal of respect for her? The facilitator who talked about her work was a communications consultant, and I worried that maybe Tannen was a pop psychologist type, since some of her books had been quite popular. If, however, she is one of the "foremost names," I'd love to read a book or two by her.

Well, psych is not her field, but as far as linguistics and socio-linguistics goes, I'd read what she has to say and see if it makes sense.

I read You Just Don't Understand years ago. I liked the book and thought it made a lot of sense, though I can't remember any specifics of it now. Here 's an excerpt from that book.