How do people engage in, and manage discourse and interaction with others? Whether in informal, everyday conversations of professional dialogues, people do many things while they are speaking or writing. Focusing on the fundamental interactional, social, political, and cultural functions of text and talk, Discourse as Social Interaction shows that discourse is not merely form and meaning, but also action. The volume looks further at this social dimension of discourse by examining the role of social identity and group membership, such as those based on gender, race, and ethnicity. It asks these important questions: How do members of various groups typically speak among each other and how do they communicatr with people of other groups or cultures? What is the role of discourse in the perpetuation or legitimation of sexism or racism? Discourse as Social Interaction closes the gap between the micro analysis of very detailed structures of talk with the macro analysis of their functions and variation in social structure and culture.