“I'm Calling to Let You Know!”

This chapter, written by Alice Freed, examines outbound telemarketing calls made by sale representatives of an American telecommunications company that is introducing local telephone service to new markets in the United States. The chapter focuses on the role that questions play in shaping the identity of both the institutional representative and the customer and considers the nature of the talk that occurs between them. Freed shows that there are long sequences during which the institutional representative relinquishes control of the interaction; thus, the sorts of restrictions and constraints on the distribution of turns and turn types, documented for much institutional discourse, are often absent. More specifically, the use of questions and answers diverges from what typically occurs in institutional settings, and stretches of ordinary personal talk, usually absent in institutional talk, are often present. The analysis calls into question some of our central assumptions about the distinction between institutional and ordinary conversation.

Aesthetics · Art · Business · Control (management) · Conversation · Economics · Identity (music) · Law and economics · Management · Media studies · Political science · Public relations · Service (business) · Sociology · Communication · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Marketing

• I love homosexuals like I love gangsters”

  Edvan P Brito•Text and Talk•2017

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