Examines the communicative behaviors of subordinate groups with dominant social groups. Analyzes the following forms of communication performed by and seen from the perspective of a lower-statused person communicating with a higher-statused person: tomming, passing, shucking, and dissembling. (PD)

A five-month ethnographic study of conversations in a Philadelphia nursing home revealed some of the rules governing situationally appropriate conversational behavior. The social communicational perspective of the study differed from both psychological and discourse analysis approaches. Analysis of the data indicated that sustained…