Where are you? Location talk in mobile phone conversations

Abstract

Conversational studies have shown that location cannot be considered as an external framework that shapes interaction; rather it is to be analyzed as a resource and an achievement in interaction (Schegloff, 1972). Building on a corpus of 93 recorded mobile phone conversations from the United States and Denmark, this article adds to current interaction research by investigating how location is produced, understood and socially accomplished via mobile phones. More specifically, we investigate how location talk operates in the opening sequences of the call. We find that location is an opening-relevant topic: speakers introduce it as the reason for the call and topicalize it following initial engagement. When referring to location, speakers predominately use two variations: inquiries (where are you), and reports of their whereabouts (I just got home). Further, speakers formulate their locations in two ways: location specific (I’m sitting on a train) or status of transit (we are on our way). In addition to open format where-are-you elicitations, location talk can take the form of a candidate (are you at Union street); candidate formulations show how speakers orient to the collaborative work of meeting up with one another and display knowledge about each other’s activities. Finally, we treat the case of reciprocal location inquiries and reports, where both caller and callee state their whereabouts, showing how location talk is sequence organized.