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In:Engagement in Professional Genres:
Edited by Carmen Sancho Guinda
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 301] 2019
► pp. 137–154

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Chapter 8
“Let’s have that conversation on next quarter’s call”

(Dis)engagement markers in Q&A sessions of earnings conference calls

 | University of Pisa, Italy
Published online: 24 April 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.301.08cra
Abstract
In this chapter, I analyse markers of engagement/disengagement used by company executives and financial analysts in two corpora of earnings conference calls that took place before the 2008 global financial crisis (Pre-crisis corpus), and in late 2009 when the crisis was still ongoing (Crisis corpus). Deontic modals with accompanying pronouns were the most frequent form of engagement, while disengagement was encoded mainly by verbal processes marked with negation. Both engagement and disengagement markers were more prominent in the Crisis corpus, suggesting a strategic usage by the participants to achieve distinct professional objectives vis-à-vis a challenging economic environment. The study builds on previous research that highlights the complex interactional dynamics of the earnings call as a high-stakes communicative event (cf. Crawford Camiciottoli 2013).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1The corpora
    • 2.2The analysis
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1Engagement markers
      • 3.1.1Deontic modals + pronouns
      • 3.1.2Let forms and imperatives
    • 3.2Disengagement markers
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (36)
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