Language in service encounters: normative structures and the influence of social categories

Abstract

This thesis examined language use in service encounters. The two aims were to document the normative structures of service encounters, and to explore how membership of important social categories influences language use in service encounters. Important aspects of the study were its use of spontaneous conversation recorded as surreptitiously as possible and the combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses of the resultant transcripts. Interactions between customers and servers were recorded at London Bookshops Queensgate, Lower Hutt. A discreet observer took notes on the gender, ethnicity and age of the customers. A total of 539 customer-server interactions were selected in the analysis. The qualitative and descriptive analyses examining the structure of the bookshop service encounters found them to be very structured, consisting of a set of obligatory and optional elements. The particular forms of these variables appeared to be influenced by the roles and relationship dynamics between the server and the customer. Quantitative analyses of gender, age, and ethnicity found that age had the strongest influence on language use. In general the use of polite language increased with age, suggesting that there is a cohort effect with different generations having different experiences with politeness. Few gender differences were found, suggesting that the power dynamics of service encounters override the impact of gender. Ethnicity was found to influence a few variables. However, because of the way it was measured, few interpretations for this are valid except to state that ethnicity in its broadest sense does relate to language in complex ways, difficult to quantify. The interaction between politeness and age was confirmed by a log linear analysis. The analysis also showed an interaction between politeness and accommodation. The relevance of the research to the service industry and social skills training is suggested.