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Deborah Tannen

Deborah Frances Tannen (born June 7, 1945) is an American professor of sociolinguistics at Georgetown University.

Although she has lectured worldwide in her field, and written or edited numerous academic publications on linguistics and interpersonal communication, she is best known for her general-audience books on interpersonal communication and public discourse. She became well-known in the United States after her book You Just Don't Understand was published in 1990. It was on the New York Times best seller list for nearly four years, was for eight months the number one best seller, and was subsequently translated into 29 other languages and on best-seller lists in six other nations. She has since made numerous appearances on major television and radio shows as an expert on interpersonal communication, and has had material published in many major newspapers and magazines.

She is the author of several popular books about the way people in social situations talk to each other. By studying these interactions, she attempts to help others to understand them and so get along better in relationships.

Tannen, however, is primarily a linguist, and thus her works arguably have more relevance to the furthering of a theoretical understanding of talk and social interaction than they do to the practical improvement of day-to-day relationships. Amongst her most important research is that of her Difference Theory, which contrasts to Dominance Theory; this is demonstrated in her book You Just Don't Understand and is a study into how men and women speak differently, with the claims that this is due to inherent differences and to an inherent male dominance.

She attended Binghamton University as an undergraduate, Wayne State University as a graduate student, and then continued to earn her Ph.D. in Linguistics from UC Berkeley in 1979.

• Lilika Nakos (Twayne World Authors Series, G. K. Hall, 1983)
• Conversational Style: Analyzing Talk Among Friends (1984; Oxford University Press, 2005)
• That's Not What I Meant! How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships (Ballantine, 1986, ISBN 0345340906
• Talking Voices: Repetition, dialogue, and imagery in conversational discourse (Cambridge University Press, 1989, hardcover ISBN 0-521-37001-9, paperback ISBN 0-521-37900-8)
• You Just Don't Understand: Men and Women in Conversation (William Morrow, 1990, ISBN 0-688-07822-2; Quill, 2001, ISBN 0-06-095962-2)
• Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work (William Morrow, 1994, ISBN 0-688-11243-9; ISBN 0-380-71783-2)
• The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words (Ballantine, 1999, ISBN 0345407512{
• I Only Say This Because I Love You: Talking to Your Parents, Partner, Sibs, and Kids When You're All Adults (Ballantine, 2002, ISBN 0-345-40752-0)
• You're Wearing That?: Mothers and Daughters in Conversation (Random House, 2006, ISBN 1-4000-6258-6)

• "Biography", Web Page of Deborah Tannen, Georgetown University. (Retrieved September 6, 2006)

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Deborah Tannen

• Tannen's home page at Georgetown University
• Listen to Deborah Tannen discuss communication on the Open Grove