Why is unintelligibility so valued in academia? How can a joke that's funny in one culture be an insult in another? In this book, a linguist answers these and other questions, revealing the ways in which what we say and how we say it help us to accomplish our aims.
The chapters about the jury language suffered from unnecessary exposition/ background. I did like the idea that the language / culture of psychotherapy shouldn't be conflated with that of the courtroom/ used to mislead people. That was the most well developed concept. The chapter on the talking cure and the first few chapters were good. Overall some of it seemed like filler or just random stray thoughts. But about half the book was ok.
The book was referenced in an article about women's speech and I was disappointed that the book itself didn't focus more on that (as that's what I originally thought it was about).