Calling for Help

Language and social interaction in telephone helplines

Editors

Carolyn Baker | University of Queensland

Michael Emmison | University of Queensland

Alan Firth | Aalborg University

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027253866 | EUR 120.00 | USD 180.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027294081 | EUR 120.00 | USD 180.00

Telephone helplines have become one of the most pervasive sites of expert-lay interaction in modern societies throughout the world. Yet surprisingly little is known of the in situ, language-based processes of help-seeking and help-giving behavior that occurs within them. This collection of original studies by both internationally renowned and emerging scholars seeks to improve upon this state of affairs. It does so by offering some of the first systematic investigations of naturally-occurring spoken interaction in telephone helplines. Using the methods of Conversation Analysis, each of the contributors offers a detailed investigation into the skills and competencies that callers and call-takers routinely draw upon when engaging one another within a range of helplines. Helplines in the US, the UK, Australia, Scandinavia, The Netherlands, and Ireland, dealing with the provision of healthcare, emotional support and counselling, technical assistance and consumer rights, tourism and finance, make up the studies in the volume. Collectively and individually, the research provides fascinating insight into an under-researched area of modern living and demonstrates the relevance and potential of helplines for the growing field of institutional interaction.

This book will be of interest to students of communication, applied linguistics, discourse and conversation, sociology, counselling, technology and work, social psychology and anthropology.

[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 143] 2005. xviii, 352 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.143

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors | pp. xi–xiv

Preface | pp. xv–xvii

Calling for help: An introduction

Alan Firth, Michael Emmison and Carolyn Baker | pp. 1–35

Technical assistance

Calibrating for competence in calls to technical support

Carolyn Baker, Michael Emmison and Alan Firth | pp. 39–62

Collaborative problem description in help desk calls

Hanneke Houtkoop, Frank Jansen and Anja Walstock | pp. 63–89

The metaphoric use of space in expert-lay interaction about computing systems

Wilbert Kraan | pp. 91–105

Emotional support

The mitigation of advice: Interactional dilemmas of peers on a telephone support service

Christopher Pudlinski | pp. 109–131

Four observations on openings in calls to Kids Help Line

Susan Danby, Carolyn Baker and Michael Emmison | pp. 133–151

‘I just want to hear somebody right now’: Managing identities on a telephone helpline

Hedwig te Molder | pp. 153–173

Healthcare provision

Callers’ presentations of problems in telephone calls to Swedish primary care

Vesa Leppanen | pp. 177–205

Constructing and negotiating advice in calls to a poison information center

Hakan Landqvist | pp. 207–234

Consumer assistance

Opportunities for negotiation at the interface of phone calls and service-counter interaction: A case study

Denise Chappell | pp. 237–256

Institutionality at issue: The helpline call as a ‘language game’

Brian Torode | pp. 257–283

Aspects of call management

Some initial reflections on conversational structures for instruction giving

Ged M. Murtagh | pp. 287–307

Working a call: Multiparty management and interactional infrastructure in calls for help

Jack Whalen and Don H. Zimmerman | pp. 309–345

Name Index | pp. 347–348

Subject Index | pp. 349–351

“[...] Calling for Help brings out various aspects of institutional talk that have been scantly studied by discourse analysts. In this respect, this book has opened a new frontier in conversation analysis. Because of its approach to language as a means of social interaction, the book can offer a great deal to those interested in studying language in society.”

Shiv R. Upadhyay, York University, Toronto, Canada, on Linguist List, Vol. 17.3279 (2006)

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[no author supplied]

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Subjects & Metadata

Communication Studies

Linguistics

Discourse studies

Pragmatics

BIC Subject: CF – Linguistics

BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General

ONIX Metadata

ONIX 2.1

ONIX 3.0

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2005050837 | Marc record