What Is Conversation ?!

Conversation is interactive, more-or-less spontaneous, communication between two or more conversants. Interactivity occurs because contributions to a conversation are response reactions to what has previously been said. Spontaneity occurs because a conversation must proceed, to some extent, and in some way, unpredictably. (Contrast with a scripted conversation, which falls outside this definition.) (However, the scope of that spontaneity may legitimately be somewhat pre-limited for the purpose of expediency, e.g. a talk show or a debate.)

Conversations are sometimes the ideal form of communication, depending on the conversants' intended ends. Conversations may be ideal when, for example, each party desires a relatively equal exchange of information, or when one party desires to question the other. (On the other hand, if permanency, or the ability to review such information is important, written communication may be ideal. Or if time-efficiency is most important, a speech may be preferable.) For a successful conversation, the partners must achieve a workable balance of contributions. A successful conversation includes mutually interesting connections between the speakers or things that the speakers know. For this to happen, those engaging in conversation must find a topic on which they both can relate in some sense.

Conversation is indispensable for the successful accomplishment of almost all activities between people, especially the coordination of work, the formation of friendship and for learning.

Classification of conversation

Means
Many conversants develop, over the course of their lives, and over the course of an individual conversation, strategies of achieving successful conversation.
Those engaging in conversation may tend to relate the other speaker's statements to themselves.
They may insert aspects of their lives into their replies, to relate to the other person's opinions or points of conversation.

Ends
Most conversations may be classified by their goal. Coversational ends may, however, shift over the life of the conversation.
Functional conversation is designed to convey information in order to help achieve an individual or group goal.
Small talk is a type of conversation where the topic is less important than the social purpose of achieving bonding between people or managing personal distance.
Banter is non-serious conversation, usually between friends, which may rely on humour or in-jokes at the expense of those taking part. The purpose of banter may at first appear to be an offensive affront to the other person's face. However, people engaging in such a conversation are often signaling that they are comfortable enough in each others' company to be able to say such things without causing offense. Banter is particularly difficult for those on the autism spectrum and those with semantic pragmatic disorder.

Subjects
The majority of conversations can be divided into four categories according to their major subject content:
Conversations about subjective ideas, which often serve to extend understanding and awareness.
Conversations about objective facts, which may serve to consolidate a widely-held view.
Conversations about other people (usually absent), which may be either critical, competitive, or supportive. This includes gossip.
Conversations about oneself, which sometimes indicate attention-seeking behaviour.
In the real world, few conversations fall exclusively into one category. Nevertheless, the proportional distribution of any given conversation between the categories can offer useful psychological insights into the mind set of the participants.

and as the Chinese say “A single conversation across the table with a wise person is worth a month's study of books” ...

Wonderful