Many scholars of language have accepted a view of grammar as a clearly delineated and internally coherent structure which is best understood as a self-contained system. The contributors to this volume propose a very different way of approaching and understanding grammar, taking it as part of a broader range of systems which underlie the organization of social life and emphasizing its role in the use of language in everyday interaction and cognition.

Notes on the contributors; 1. Introduction Emanuel A. Schegloff, Elinor Ochs and Sandra A. Thompson; 2. Turn organization: one intersection of grammar and interaction Emanuel A. Schegloff; 3. Interactional units in conversation: syntactic, intonational, and pragmatic resources for the management of turns Cecilia E. Ford and Sandra A. Thompson; 4. Resources and repair: a cross-linguistic study of syntax and repair Barbara A. Fox, Makoto Hayashi and Robert Jasperson; 5. On the 'semi-permeable' character of grammatical units in conversation: conditional entry into the turn space of another speaker Gene H. Lerner; 6. On repeats and responses in Finnish conversations Marja-Leena Sorjonen; 7. 'When I come down I'm in the domain state': grammar and graphic representation in the interpretive activity of physicists Elinor Ochs , Patrick Gonzales and Sally Jacoby; 8. Transparent vision Charles Goodwin; 9. Conversational signifying: grammar and indirectness among African American women Marcyliena Morgan; 10. Creating evidence: making sense of written words in Bosavi Bambi B. Schieffelin; Appendix: transcription conventions; Index.