Janet Holmes
Small talk at work - potential problems for workers
with an intellectual
disability
This paper introduces the reader to the sociolinguistic implications of some research findings from a large research project on Language in the Workplace based in Wellington, New Zealand, of which I am the Director. (See our website: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/lwp). It also illustrates two different features of my research more generally. Firstly, by exploring some features of small talk, an area on which I have written a number of papers, it exemplifies speech functions analysis, a strand of research in which I have been engaged since the 1980s, having published material on compliments, apologies, and directives, as well as small talk. Secondly, the paper demonstrates ways in which sociolinguistics and discourse analysis can be usefully applied to "real life" communication problems in the wider community. This too has been a theme in my on-going research, as illustrated most obviously by publications in the area of ESOL.
Janet Holmes is Professor of Linguistics and Applied Langua at the Victoria University of Wellington.
