Chapter published 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. 270–299

Chapter 9
OKAY in health helpline calls in Brazil

Managing alignment and progressivity

| Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos
| University of Helsinki
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.
Keywords: Brazilian Portuguese, eliciting uptake, transitions, helpline, information delivery
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
Published online: 17 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.34.09ost