Dialogue in Spanish is an edited volume of compelling theoretical and empirical studies regarding dialogue in Spanish communication. The book intends to illuminate three areas of interest: the discursive particularities of situated dialogue, the effect of different dialogic contexts and functions on communication, and the relationship between dialogue and Hispanic cultures (viii). Overall, the book provides a rich, multifaceted view of dialogue and its functions in Spanish with analyses of varied discursive phenomena in different dialogic situations. The book also includes quantitative and qualitative studies, and approaches Spanish dialogue from several discourse analytic and pragmatic perspectives on interaction. Dialogue in Spanish is a valuable source of discursive analyses of verbal interaction across a variety of dialogic contexts. This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in language-related disciplines, particularly to students of Spanish cultures.

The book includes introductory and concluding chapters written by the editors. The concluding chapter is especially insightful as it analyzes and discusses the approaches and findings of Chs. 2–12 in light of the conceptual guidelines proposed in Ch. 1, an exploration of foundational as well as more current theoretical approaches to the notion of dialogue. The rest of the book is organized into two parts: Part 1 includes articles about dialogue in informal contexts, and Part 2 is devoted to dialogue in public, professional, and educational communication. In Part 1, six articles examine Spanish dialogue in relation to oral narratives, the production of irony, and the use of pragmatic markers. Ch. 2 looks at the configuration and distribution of “reconstructed dialogue” in oral narratives. Ch. 3 investigates the relationship between positive/negative irony and politeness in conversation. Ch. 4 examines irony as a discursive mechanism in the production of conversational humor. Ch. 5 analyzes how the dialogic nature of oral narratives emerges through the use of evaluative resources. Ch. 6 focuses on the use of Spanish verdad (lit. ‘truth’) as a marker of epistemic modality. Ch. 7 compares the presence and interactional functions of Spanish backchannels in exchanges among bilingual and monolingual speakers.

In Part 2, five articles examine Spanish dialogue in relation to the use of insults, conversational repair, the role of interpreters, and expectations. Ch. 8 focuses on how insults contribute to toughening the political opposition between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's followers and detractors. Ch. 9 provides a qualitative and quantitative comparison between Peninsular and Mexican Spanish repair strategies in the resolution of monetary conflicts. Ch. 10 compares repair strategies produced by speakers with and without Alzheimer-type dementia in trying to maintain communicative coherence. Ch. 11 discusses conceptual models that help understand the participation of interpreters in legal and medical triadic exchanges. Ch. 12 looks into how expectations constitute a basis for dialogue production and interpretation between native speakers and learners of Spanish.