Science & invention / Literature
Deborah Tannen
born 1945 · linguist, author
Georgetown linguist and author of the long-running best-seller You Just Don't Understand, who earned a master's degree in English literature at Wayne State University.
- Born
Brooklyn, New York
age 81- Birth name
- Deborah Frances Tannen
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Tannen was born in Brooklyn in 1945 and graduated from Hunter College. Before turning to linguistics she studied literature, and her Detroit chapter came then: she earned a master's degree in English literature at Wayne State University. She went on to a doctorate in linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and joined the faculty of Georgetown University in Washington, where she has taught for decades. Her research on conversational style, on how people's ways of speaking signal meaning and cause misunderstanding, reached a mass audience through books such as That's Not What I Meant! and You Just Don't Understand (1990), about conversations between women and men, which spent four years on the New York Times best-seller list, eight months of them at number one. She writes often for newspapers and magazines.
Highlights
- You Just Don't Understand (1990): four years on the New York Times best-seller list
- That's Not What I Meant! (1986) on conversational style
- University Professor of linguistics at Georgetown University
- Master's degree in English literature from Wayne State University
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here
Wayne State University
She earned a master's degree in English literature here before turning to linguistics.