Telephone conversations revisited: : A cross-cultural study of conversational mechanisms employed over the telephone in Ecuadorian Spanish and British English

• Main Author: Placencia, Maria Elena
• Published: Lancaster University 1991
• Subjects: 410; Linguistics
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.315139

This thesis is a proposal for a new approach to the investigation of the language of telephone conversations. It strives to integrate the framework of analysis advocated by conversation analysts (originally the first to examine these conversations) and that of pragmaticists, in an attempt to provide description and explanation of telephone behaviour. It is based on the examination of telephone talk in Ecuadorian Spanish and British English. Such an approach requires the examination of these conversations at four levels - the level of their underlying structure which is analyzed in terms of skeletons, paths and moves, the linguistic realization of moves in relation to features of context, the politeness orientations behind moves and their linguistic realizations, and finally, the socio-cultural motivations behind linguistic choices and politeness orientations. In addition, this thesis constitutes a study in cross-cultural communication in that it attempts to determine basic similarities and differences in the organization of telephone conversations in two languages and cultures, which can provide insights into broader differences in the linguistic and politeness systems of those two languages.