ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the growing body of research in Spanish from a variational pragmatics perspective by analyzing the use of small talk in the context of service encounters (SE) as it relates to participant age, and, secondarily, to social distance. It examines small talk made by female sales/service agents and clients during SEs in Rosario, Uruguay, following a refusal, rejection, or similar dispreferred response. The chapter shows how the communicative strategy, termed post-refusal small talk (PRST), was an effective means of mitigating rejection and maintaining/building rapport. It describes the extent to which PRST was employed as a mitigation and/or rapport-maintenance strategy in SEs. The concepts of rapport and rapport orientation are helpful for understanding speech behavior in SEs. The data support the claim for the use of small talk as a strategy for attenuating the potential face threat of a refusal in the context of SEs.
