A corpus of telephone calls linking an ill person to his family is taken here to explore a specific use of the telephone, i.e. as a form of visiting. Visit-calls are examined from the point of view of the practices on which they are based and the framework of relationships between the participants. It is through ordinary social activity - the asking for news - and the state of relationships between them, that the callers improvise the visit and reaffirm a support relationship. Several types of difficulty arise, however. How, in the circumstances of telephone conversations, do the callers manage to reveal that their call is indeed a visit? How does the caller share the patient's « story » while simultaneously toning down the pessimistic nature of the news? An analysis of the sequence of conversations reveals the interactive work required by a visit. It also enables us to understand how the participants free themselves from the support relationship, momentarily, to recall it only at the end of the conversation.

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Summary: An essential aspect of telephone use by the general public is its role at key moments in family life: marriage, divorce or separation, birth, childhood events, illness and death. Usually an event is announced by telephone; a letter or a telegram is considered less appropriate, at least for the more immediate family members. While any telephone conversation enables interlocutors to maintain their relationships, the announcement by phone of an event relevant to the family emphasises them. One telephones to announce an event, to inquire about another's well-being, to reassure a family member, to provide support and to be, in a sense, present.

This article draws on a corpus of telephone calls in order to investigate differences in the length of mixed conversations. Calls made by men to women are longer than those from women to men. It is during the opening of the conversation that the most marked difference can be detected between the behaviour of men and women callers. This difference, which applies to mixed calls only, is the key to the rest of the conversation.