Identidades sociais e(m) interações linguísticas: negociando identidades em chamadas telefônicas de serviço

Abstract

This article investigates how speakers negotiate identities in social interaction. Specifically, it aims at understanding which linguistic strategies interactants use in the negotiation of identities in two telephone-mediated service encounters. This research was conducted through the combination of three distinct, but compatible paradigms: conversational analysis, sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. I argue that, in the interactions investigated, there is complementarity and tension between local identities (consumer/call taker) and social identities that transcend the call itself (geographic origin and social class). I conclude that code switching is the linguistic tool interlocutors prefer to forge local identities, especially when these identities relate to those that transcend the service call.