Feeling, Thinking, and Talking
How the Embodied Brain Shapes Everyday Communication

A comprehensive account of communication as a social, biological, and neurological force, with examples drawn from everyday conversation.

L. David Ritchie (Author)

9781108969673, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 March 2025

364 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.526 kg

'… an innovative approach to an age-old problem, the book makes a useful and thought-provoking contribution to human communication.… This is fascinating reading for anyone interested in discourse studies, communication studies, cognitive science, and cognitive linguistics.' L. David Ritchie, Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik

The way the brain, body, and mind interact with social structure to shape communication has so far not received the attention it deserves. This book addresses this gap by providing a novel account of communication as a social, biological and neurological force. Combining theories from communication studies and psycholinguistics, and drawing on biological and evolutionary perspectives, it shows how communication is inherently both biological and social, and that language and the neural systems that support it have evolved in response to a complex social environment. It introduces a clear set of terms based on current research, and illustrates key concepts using real-life examples from everyday conversation - speaking to a number of current debates around the evolutionary and biological basis of language, and the relationship between language, cognition, and environment. Thought provoking and engaging, it will change the way we think about the relationship between communication and cognition.

Preface: The genesis and intentions of this book
1. The embodiment perspective
2. Homeostasis: Perception, feelings, and signaling
3. How language and conversation evolved
4. Thinking: Using and understanding language
5. Emotion
6. Signals
7. Context
8. Relationships and groups
9. Conversation
10. Play
11. Metaphor
12. Humor and irony
13. Stories
14. Media technology, social reality, and discourse
15. Recap: Homeostasis and communication.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of mind [HPM], Semantics, discourse analysis, etc [CFG], Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF]