Publications

Publication details [#26096]

Lindström, Anna. 1994. Identification and recognition in Swedish telephone conversation openings. Language in Society 23 (2) : 231–252.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
Cambridge University Press
ISBN
0047-4045

Annotation

This comparative analysis of Swedish, American and Dutch telephone call openings confirms that self-identification practices, i.e. either explicit self-identification or other-recognition through voice sample, are culturally variable. In the US both answerers and callers prefer other-recognition over self-identification. In the Netherlands this preference is reversed. The Swedish preference lies somewhere between these extremes: answerers overwhelmingly self-identify by name over the telephone, but they also avail themselves of the same resources found in American materials to achieve other-recognition.