Another look at the service encounter: Progressivity, intersubjectivity, and trust in a Japanese sushi restaurant

This paper explores the sequence organization of food orders in a Japanese restaurant. It examines a range of practices through which the recipient of the order privileges intersubjective understanding at the expense of sequence progressivity or vice versa. These practices center on the decision to repeat the order (or not) and the management of the repeat's intonation contour. Through the examination of sequence types in this context, the analysis shows that these conversational practices are vehicles for the construction of relationships between a restaurant chef and customers in a cross-cultural and cross-linguistic environment. Privileging progressivity in such sequences is argued to be a vehicle for the construction of affiliative chef–customer relationships in which mutual understanding is a ‘trusted’ outcome.