Pragmatic structure in appointment-making conversations

Conversational structure was examined by applying pragmatic and sequential analyses to two-party, single-purpose conversations. A subgoal achievement label was given to each talking turn of 93 automatically tape-recorded telephone conversations between native English-speaking beauty salon receptionists and a confederate female caller. The confederate played a standardized, nonleading role in getting an appointment for a haircut. Lag sequential analyses showed that these conversations have subgoal structures and that some structures are more prevalent than others. Regularities were attributed to social and organizational problems that appointment making presents and that pragmatic theory addresses.This study was completed as past of the first author's doctoral dissertation.