In:OKAY across Languages: Toward a comparative approach to its use in talk-in-interaction
Edited by Emma Betz, Arnulf Deppermann, Lorenza Mondada and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 34] 2021
► pp. 269–299
Chapter 9OKAY in health helpline calls in Brazil
Managing alignment and progressivity
Published online: 17 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.34.09ost
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.34.09ost
Abstract
This chapter investigates phone calls to a health
helpline in Brazilian Portuguese, focusing on how call-takers employ
OKAY as a resource in managing the participants’ mutual alignment
and the progression of activities during the calls. Call-takers make
use of OKAY in transitioning between main and
subsidiary actions and activities and in eliciting
uptake from the recipient. In both contexts, the use of OKAY relates
to the work of managing the institutional agenda and technical
resources in relation to the situated concerns of the callers. The
analysis thus contributes to the study of particles and
institutional interaction by showing how OKAY is used in organizing
the routinized, agenda-driven conversational structures of helpline
interactions.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Interaction in helplines
- 1.2Data and setting
- 2.Transitioning between actions and activities
- 2.1Postponement of the answer to the inquiry
- 2.2Resumption of the main course of action
- 2.3Moving to further activities
- 3.Eliciting recipient’s uptake
- 3.1Following and understanding an ongoing explanation
- 3.2Uptake of emphasized information
- 3.3Acquiescence with future action
- 3.4Exhaustion of inquiries: Pre-closing
- 3.5Structuring a multi-unit response
- 4.Discussion
Notes
Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Liu, Lili, Yinong Tian & Yonggang Su
Sabbah‐Taylor, Angela & Christopher J. Jenks
Mondada, Lorenza & Fernanda Miranda da Cruz
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