Abstract
This is the first monograph to examine mediated business interaction in Spanish. It focuses on communication between native speakers of Spanish from different Spanish-speaking countries with a view to informing our understanding of intercultural communication in a contemporary business environment. Using elements of pragmatics with tools from conversation analysis, the book examines the various activities that telephone conversationalists engage in to supply and demand a service over the phone through the mediational means of Spanish by addressing the following questions: Do speakers of Spanish display similar communicative practices as those observed in other languages when requesting and being offered a service over the phone? Do specifically located activities such as the call openings and closings display similar coordination and ritualization as that observed in other languages? Does the language seen as a cultural tool reflect a different orientation towards such activities? What strategies do telephone agents and (prospective) clients employ to obtain a sale and either procure the best value for money or obviate it, respectively? And, what role does intercultural communication play in the construction of these practices?