Data and Methodology

Abstract

This book aims primarily at analysing the request-response sequences in telephone service encounters made in three different European countries. It aims in particular to observe the strategies employed by people receiving the calls when responding to the caller’s (C’s) requests for information. A second aim of the study is that of observing the use of those strategies of response-turn design from a cross-cultural perspective and analysing whether they are shared by the speakers of the three languages. Thirdly, the study aims to look to what extent the participants in the interaction are constrained by the institutional and social roles they play in the conversation, and whether those interactions can constitute a specific conversational genre. Fourthly, the study also aims at analysing the grammatical constituency of extended response turns from an interactional linguistics point of view, and it looks at the implications of such a constituency on the turn-taking system. Lastly, the analysis conducted also aims at providing material from naturally occurring speech that informs the practices of service providers and call centre operators with practical implications for the training of these staff.