Assembling Talk: Social Alignments in the Workplace

Abstract

This research examines social positioning between 2 Vietnamese workers in a circuit-board manufacturing plant. A 5-min interaction is analyzed, during which a machine operator and his supervisor troubleshoot a computerized machine. The talk is primarily in Vietnamese, which has a complex system of person reference. However, instead of displaying relative status through kinship and status terms, the workers bypass these forms, select nonhonorific markers, incorporate English solidarity expressions, and contest each other. These coconstructions display efforts to achieve symmetrical positioning in high-pressure moments of problem solving. As a solution emerges, the supervisor begins to position himself hierarchically but not through address forms. Instead, he uses directives and vocatives (although the effects are weakened by the assistant's anticipated actions) and adopts an authoritative announcement tone. The interaction illustrates the range of choices-even within the constraints of the activity-for structuring social relationships, which function as a lubricant to expeditious practice.