Couper-Kuhlen is regarded as an important figure in the development of interactional linguistics and the study of prosody in conversation, through a number of books co-edited with Margret Selting: the 1996 book ''Prosody in Conversation'', the 2001 book ''Studies in Interactional Linguistics'' also co-edited with Selting, and the textbook ''Interactional Linguistics''. Her book ''Building Responsive Action'' written together with Barbara Fox and Sandra Thompson received the best book award from the International Society for Conversation Analysis in 2018.
Couper-Kuhlen is member of the editorial board of ''Research on Language and Social Interaction'' and has received a honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki. For her 65th birthday, a conference and following book publication was dedicated to her.
