How people refer to 'thinking' during conversation

What is it about?

Thinking is usually understood as inner cognitive activity. However, people repeatedly display what they themselves, and what others think in their everyday language use. (E.g. I think x; People think y). This paper analyses the language of thinking in talk radio debates in order to reveal what thinking talk achieves in routine social interaction.

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Why is it important?

Our finding shows that 'thinking' features prominently in routine talk. It is a highly flexible discursive tool that allows speakers to variously add rhetorical weight to arguments they wish to uphold, whilst also allowing displays of tentative disagreement with others. This research adds to a body of work that shows the importance of attending to linguistic displays of cognitions (e.g. thinking, knowing, believing), not as reflections of inner mental life but as discursive tools for social action in their own right.