Interpersonal pragmatics and workplace interaction

This paper explores the connection between interpersonal pragmatics and linguistic research on language in the workplace, including consideration of the role that Janet Holmes (and the LWP team) has played within the field. We provide a critique of relevant literature and illustrate the issues we raise with data from meeting talk. We foreground the importance of interpersonal aspects of workplace communication and discuss the theoretical and methodological affordances of frameworks that have been dominant in the field. We close the paper with reflecting on the current state of the art and ways forward for researching language at work.