Language in Society

Table of Contents - 1994 - Volume 23, Issue 02  

Articles

Identification and recognition in Swedish telephone conversation openings

Anna Lindströma1

a1 Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1551

Abstract

This study examines how identification and recognition is achieved in Swedish telephone conversation openings, and compares the patterning of Swedish telephone openings with the analyses of telephone conversation openings in other linguistic communities. The analysis suggests that Swedes overwhelmingly self-identify by name over the telephone, like Dutch interactants: but Swedes also avail themselves of the recognitional resources that have been found within American materials to achieve recognition without explicit name-proffer. This finding bears on orientations toward formality and informality in Swedish culture. (Conversation analysis, telephone conversation openings, communication and culture)