Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 17:1 (2026) ► pp.92–122

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Activity contamination in a problematic call made to the Korean emergency center

ORCiD logo with link | Sungkyunkwan University
Published online: 14 April 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.22046.par
Abstract
This study examines a single highly controversial emergency call made to the Korean emergency center which garnered significant media interest due to the caller’s use of authority to demand the call taker’s name. The analysis shows how the sequential context in which turns are produced and the treatment they receive have consequences for how the dispute emerges by using the notion of activity contamination (Whalen, Jack, Don Zimmerman and Marilyn Whalen. 1988. “When Words Fail: A Single Case Analysis.” Social Problems 35(4): 335–362. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). A sequential analysis of the recorded call revealed how the call for help fails as soliciting and giving reason for the phone call is displaced by the activity of arguing with each other. The caller’s use of directives and commands when addressing the call-taker is examined in relation to the Korean kapjil “abuse of power” culture. The findings may contribute insights into cultural dynamics in emergency calls, at the same time providing suggestions to improve the effectiveness of Korean emergency service calls in the future.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methodology
  • 3.Interactional organization of emergency calls and problematic police citizen exchanges
  • 4.Activity contamination and aligning identities
  • 5.Analysis of the target call
    • 5.1The opening
    • 5.2The dispute
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • References
References (53)
References
Ahn, Joon-Yong. 2021, November 14. Minjudang, “Lee Jaemyung, Kim Moon-soo-wa talli kongsa kyubyelhay 119-ey ilpan simin-ui casey-ro chimchak-kakey sinko-hay-ss-ta” [Democratic party reports that unlike Kim Moon-soo, Lee Jae-myung knew how to draw a line between private and public affairs.] Open News Report. [URL]
Antaki, Charles, and Alexandra Kent. 2012. “Telling people what to do (and, sometimes, why): Contingency, entitlement and explanation in staff requests to adults with intellectual impairments.” Journal of Pragmatics 44(6/7): 876–889. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Atkinson, John, and John Heritage. 1984. Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berger, Israel, Celia Kitzinger, and Sonja J. Ellis. 2016. “Using a category to accomplish resistance in the context of an emergency call.” Pragmatics 26(4): 563–583.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira Hall. 2005. “Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach.” Discourse Studies 71: 585–614. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Choe, Sang-Hun. 2018, April 13. “Sister of Korean ‘Nut Rage’ Heiress Accused of Throwing Her Own Tantrum.” The New York Times. [URL]
Craven, Alexandra, and Jonathan Potter. 2010. “Directives: Entitlement and contingency in action.” Discourse Studies 12(4): 419–442. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cromdal, Jakob, Håkan Landqvist, Daniel Persson-Thunqvist, and Karin Osvaldsson. 2012. “Finding out what’s happened: Two procedures for opening emergency calls.” Discourse Studies 14(4): 371–397. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drew, Paul. 1997. “Open class repair initiators in response to sequential sources of troubles in conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 28(1): 69–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Do, Hoa, Tran Huu Thuy Giang, and Ket Maj. 2018. “Vietnamese telephone openings: Both universals and particulars”, Language and Dialogue 8(3): 363–389. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, Susan, Mary Catherine O’Connor and Jarrett Rosenberg. 1984. “Language and power in the family.” In: Language and Power, ed. by Cheris Kramarae, Muriel Schulz, and William O’Barr, 116–135. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garcia, Angela Cora. 2015. “‘Something really weird has happened’: Losing the ‘big picture’ in emergency service calls”. Journal of Pragmatics 841:102–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “What went right: interactional strategies for managing crisis negotiations during an emergency service call”. The Sociological Quarterly 58(3): 495–518. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1981. Forms of talk. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles. 1984. “Notes on story structure and the organization of participation”, In Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, edited by J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage. London: Cambridge University Press, 225–246.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie, and Charles Goodwin. 1987. “Children’s arguing”, In Language, Gender, and Sex in Comparative Perspective, edited by Susan Philips, Susan Steele, and Christine Tanz, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 200–248. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness. 2006. “Participation, affect, and trajectory in family directive/response sequences.” Text and Talk 26(4–5): 515–543. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1983. “Aggravated correction and disagreement in children’s conversations.” Journal of Pragmatics 71: 657–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Greatbatch, David and Robert Dingwall. 1997. “Argumentative talk in divorce mediation sessions.” American Sociological Review 621: 151–70. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Head, Jonathan, and Tessa Wong. 2022. Itaewon crush: First emergency call came hours before crush. BBC news report. [URL]
Heritage, John. 1984. “A Change of State Token and Aspects of its Sequential Placement.” In Structures of Social Action: Conversation Analysis, edited by J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 295–343.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Well-prefaced turns in English conversation: A conversation analytic perspective.” Journal of Pragmatics 881: 88–104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John, and Steve Clayman. 2010. Talk-in-Action: Identities, Interaction and Institutions. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail, and John R. E. Lee. 1980. “The rejection of advice: Managing the problematic convergence of a ‘troubles-telling’ and a ‘service encounter’”. Journal of Pragmatics 5(5): 399–422. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail. 2004. “Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction”. In Conversation analysis: Studies from the first generation, edited by Gene H. Lerner. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 13–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jeong, Han-ul, and Gyewon Jo. 2019. “An empirical study on Gapjil culture in Korean society.” Korean Political Studies 53(10): 105–125.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jeong, Ji-eun. 2011, December 29. Jin Jungkwon “Kim Moon-soo cisa-tawesseya”.. taytomin kongkaysakwa yokwu. “Jin Jungkwon says “Kim Moon-soo should have acted like a governor”… He should apologize to the do-residents. [URL]
Kent, Alexandra, and Charles Antaki. 2019. “Police call-takers’ first substantive question projects the outcome of the call.” Applied Linguistics 41(5): 640–661. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kevoe-Feldman, Heidi. 2019. “Inside the emergency service call-center: Reviewing thirty years of language and social interaction research.” Research on Language & Social Interaction 52(3): 227–240. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “Calming emotional 911 callers: Using redirection as a patient-focused directive in emergency medical calls.” Language & Communication 811: 81–92. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ko, Jieun. 2024. A conversation analytic study on Korean emergency calls: The collaborative construction of indirect help requests. Sungkyunkwan University. Doctoral dissertation.
Kim, Hyeri Stephanie. 2015. “Resisting the terms of polar questions through ani (‘no’)-prefacing in Korean conversation.” Discourse Processes 52(4): 311–334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Joo Hwan. 2019. March 15. “119 shinko hankang twusinca-ey swuyenghamwe cenhwa cal-hanta …taywon 3 myeng cingkye.” [119 call Han River drownee “you’re calling while swimming?” … Three officers under disciplinary measures.] Yonhap news. [URL]
Koole, Tom, and Verberg, Nina. 2017. “Aligning caller and call-taker: The opening phase of Dutch emergency calls.” Pragmatics and Society 11: 129–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Seung Hee. 2006. “Second summons in Korean telephone call openings.” Discourse and Society 351: 261–283.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lindström, Anna. 1994. “Identification and recognition in Swedish telephone conversation openings.” Language in Society, 23(2): 231–252. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laforest, Marty. 2012. “The False Report during an Emergency Call: Using Discourse Analysis to Detect Deceit.” Proceedings of the International Association of Forensic Linguists’ Tenth Biennal Conference, 139–152. Birmingham: Center of Forensic Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Osvaldsson Cromdal, Karin, and Cromdal, Jakob. 2022. “A weak case for solitary confinement: Categorisation, collegiality and accountability arrangements in a special residential home”. Qualitative Social Work 21(6): 1229–1251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1992. Lectures on Conversation, Volumes I and II, edited by Gail Jefferson with Introduction by Emanuel A. Schegloff. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1968. “Sequencing in Conversational Openings”, American Anthropologist 70(6): 1075–1095. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1979. “Identification and recognition in telephone openings.” In Everyday Language: Studies in Ethnomethodology, edited by George Psathas, Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum. 23–78.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1987. “Analyzing single episodes of conversation: an exercise in conversation analysis.” Social Psychology Quarterly 501: 101–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stokoe, Elizabeth. 2014. “The conversation analytic role-play method (CARM): A method for training communication skills as an alternative to stimulated role play”. Research on Language and Social Interaction 47(3): 255–265. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stokoe, Elizabeth, Bogdana Humă, Rein Ove Sikveland, and Heidi Kevoe-Feldman. 2020. “When delayed responses are productive: Being persuaded following resistance in conversation”. Journal of Pragmatics 1151: 70–82. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tracy, Karen. 1997. “Interactional trouble in emergency service requests”. Research on Language and Social Interaction 30(4): 315–343. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tracy, Karen, and Robert R. Agne. 2002. “‘I just need to ask somebody some questions’: Sensitivities in domestic dispute calls”. In Language in the legal process, edited by Janet Cotterill, 75–90. New York: Palgrave McMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tracy, Karen, and Sarah J. Tracy. 1998. “Rudeness at 911: Reconceptualizing face and face attack.” Human Communication Research 25(2): 225–251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tuccio, William, and Angela Cora Garcia. 2020. “‘I’d a set that back at the chocks’: The personal hypothetical ‘I would’ in aviation flight instruction.” Journal of Pragmatics 1571: 53–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey. 2007. “The role of numbers and statistics within conversation analysis”. Communication Methods and Measures 1(1): 65–74. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whalen, Jack and Don Zimmerman. 1987. “Sequential and institutional contexts in calls for help.” Social Psychology Quarterly 501: 172–185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whalen, Jack, Don Zimmerman and Marilyn Whalen. 1988. “When Words Fail: A Single Case Analysis.” Social Problems 35(4): 335–362. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Don. 1984. “Talk and its occasion: The case of calling the police.” In: Meaning, form, and use in context: Linguistic applications, edited by Deborah Schiffrin, 210–228. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. The interactional organization of calls for emergency assistance. In: Talk at work: Interaction in institutional settings, edited by Paul Drew and John Heritage, 418–469. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue