Opening up closings—the Ecuadorian way

Abstract

In the conversation analytic tradition, this paper examines the procedures Ecuadorian Spanish (ES) speakers employ to close telephone conversations. Conversation analysts (cf. Schegloff, 1979) examined telephone talk in American English and that found that conversations are opened and brought to a close by the joint work of participants. Concerning closings, they observed, for example, that participants employ certain procedures to signal their desire to bring the conversation to an end and others to actually close the interaction. They also suggested that the conversational procedures they describe are of a universal character (cf. Schegloff and Sacks, 1974 [1973]). The examination of telephone closings in the present study reveals that similar procedures are employed in Ecuadorian Spanish. Nevertheless, it also highlights some of the features that appear to be characteristic of Ecuadorian Spanish only, that is, that seem to be culture-bound, and thus contests Schegloff and Sacks's unversality claims. The need for a culturally contexted conversation analysis, along the lines proposed by Moerman (1988) is supported here.

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