Quotes by Deborah Tannen

About Deborah Tannen:

Deborah Frances Tannen is an American academic and professor of linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She has been McGraw Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton University and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences following a term in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to a...

Deborah Tannen

Each underestimates her own power and overestimates the other's.

Deborah Tannen

We tend to look through language and not realize how much power language has.

Deborah Tannen

Each person's life is lived as a series of conversations.

Deborah Tannen

We all know we are unique individuals, but we tend to see others as representatives of groups.

Deborah Tannen

The biggest mistake is believing there is one right way to listen, to talk, to have a conversation - or a relationship.

Deborah Tannen

For most women, the language of conversation is primarily a language of rapport: a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships.

Deborah Tannen

Relationships are made of talk - and talk is for girls and women.

Deborah Tannen

Author Bio

  • NameDeborah Tannen
  • DescriptionAmerican sociolinguist
  • AliasesDeborah Frances Tannen
  • BornJune 7, 1945
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionLinguist