Reduction and Specialization in Emergency and Directory Assistance Calls

Abstract

In this article we explore how openings in 2 types of service calls, emergency calls and directory assistance calls, differ both generally and locally from ordinary and mundane telephone calls. A focus on service call openings permits a description of the local features of the call that delineate their institutional agenda, an agenda requiring different sequential trajectories than those found in ordinary calls. Observed local differences between call types occur through the deletion, preemption, orrepositioning of components of the "canonical" opening sequence that characterizes ordinary calls. Such modifications are based on participants' orientation to particular tasks and the facilitating social arrangements supporting them.