psy 369: psycholinguistics production & comprehension: conversation

PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

Production & Comprehension:

Conversation

Failed conversation ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you? COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den, and I'm

thinking about buying a computer. ABBOTT: Mac? COSTELLO: No, the name is Lou. ABBOTT: Your computer? COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one. ABBOTT: Mac? COSTELLO: I told you, my name is Lou. ABBOTT: What about Windows? COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here? ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with windows? COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look in the

windows? ABBOTT: Wallpaper. COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software. ABBOTT: Software for windows? COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to

write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What have you got?

ABBOTT: Office.

Failed conversation COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything? ABBOTT: I just did. COSTELLO: You just did what? ABBOTT: Recommend something. COSTELLO: You recommended something? ABBOTT: Yes. COSTELLO: For my office? ABBOTT: Yes. COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office? ABBOTT: Office. COSTELLO: Yes, for my office! ABBOTT: I recommend office with windows. COSTELLO: I already have an office and it has windows! OK, lets

just say, I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word. COSTELLO: What word? ABBOTT: Word in Office. COSTELLO: The only word in office is office. ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

Failed conversation COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows? ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W.” COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with

some straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?

ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One. COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of

your business. Just tell me what I need! ABBOTT: Real One. COSTELLO: If it is a long movie I also want to see reel 2, 3 and 4.

Can I watch them? ABBOTT: Of course. COSTELLO: Great, with what? ABBOTT: Real One. COSTELLO; OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie.What do

I do? ABBOTT: You click the blue "1.” COSTELLO: I click the blue one what? ABBOTT: The blue "1.” COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue "W"? ABBOTT: The blue 1 is Real One and the blue W is Word. COSTELLO: What word?

Failed conversation ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows. COSTELLO: But there are three words in "office for windows"! ABBOTT: No, just one. But it is the most popular Word in the

world. COSTELLO: It is? ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other Words left.

It pretty much wiped out all the other Words. COSTELLO: And that word is real one? ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real One isn't even

Part of Office. COSTELLO: Stop! Don't start that again. What about financial

bookkeeping you have anything I can track my money with? ABBOTT: Money. COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have? ABBOTT: Money. COSTELLO: I need money to track my money? ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer. COSTELLO: What's bundled to my computer? ABBOTT: Money.

Failed conversation COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer? ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge. COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much? ABBOTT: One copy. COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money? ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy money. COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money? ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

(LATER) COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?? ABBOTT: Click on "START".

Conversational interaction“the horse raced past

the barn”

Conversation is more than just two side-by-side monologues.

“the kids swam across the river”

Conversational interaction“The horse raced past

the barn”

Conversation is a specialized form of social interaction, with rules and organization.

“Really? Why would it do that?”

Conversation Fillmore (1981)

“The language of face-to-face conversation is the basic and primary use of language”

(pg. 152)

So all instances of language usage can (should) be compared to conversation

What is the impact of the presence or absence of different features of face-to-face conversation?

Conversation Herb Clark (1996)

Face-to-face conversation - the basic setting Features

Co-presence Visibility Audibility

Instantaneity

Evanescence Recordlessness Simultaneity

Extemporaneity Self-determination Self-expression

Immediacy Medium Control

Other settings may lack some of these features e.g., telephone conversations take away co-presence and

visibility, which may change language use


Joint action Autonomous actions

Things that you do by yourself Participatory actions

Individual acts only done as parts of joint actions People acting in coordination with one another

Doing the tango Driving a car with a pedestrian crossing the street The participants don’t always do similar things


Speaking and listening Traditionally treated as autonomous actions

Contributing to the tradition of studying language comprehension and production separately

Clark proposed that they should be treated as participatory actions


Speaking and listening Component actions in production and comprehension

come in pairs (coordinated actions) For each action in speaking there is one in listening

Speaking Listening A vocalizes sounds for B

A formalizes utterances for B

A means something for B

B attends to A’s vocalizations

B identifies A’s utterances

B understands A’s meaning

The actions of one participant depend on the actions of the other


Arena’s of language use - places where people do things with language

Meaning and understanding Establishing Common Ground

Identifying participants Layers Conversation is structured

Meaning and understanding Common ground

Common ground is necessary to coordinate speaker’s meaning with listener’s understanding

Knowledge, beliefs and suppositions that the participants believe that they share

Members of cultural communities Shared experiences What has taken place already in the conversation

Lack of successful communication was due to lack of common ground

EavesdropperAll listeners

Identifying participants Conversation often takes place in situations that involve

various types of participants and non-participants

Bystander

Side

participantsAll participants

Speaker Addressee

EavesdropperAll listeners

Identifying participants

Bystander

Side

participantsAll participants

Speaker Addressee

Humor come in part because we (eavesdroppers) share common ground that Lou and Bud didn’t)

Layers Conversations may have several layers

Layer 1 The primary conversation

Layer 2 A commentary about Layer 1

Each layer needs to be coherent (within the layer) as well as be connected to other layers in a relevant way

Layer 2: “I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start

with some straight answers. OK, forget that.”

Conversations are purposive and unplanned Typically you can’t plan exactly what you’re going to say

because it depends on another participant Conversations look planned only in retrospect

Conversations have a fairly stable structure

Structure of a conversation

Opening the conversation Identifying participants Taking turns Negotiating topics Closing conversations

Joe: (places a phone call) Kevin: Miss Pink’s office - hello Joe: hello, is Miss Pink in Kevin: well, she’s in, but she’s

engaged at the moment, who is it? Joe: Oh it’s Professors Worth’s

secretary, from Pan-American college Kevin: m, Joe: Could you give her a message

“for me” Kevin: “certainly” Joe: u’m Professor Worth said that, if

Miss Pink runs into difficulties, .. On Monday afternoon, .. With the standing subcommittee, .. Over the item on Miss Panoff, …

Structure of a conversation Kevin: Miss Panoff? Joe: Yes, that Professor Worth would

be with Mr Miles all afternoon, .. So she only had to go round and collect him if she needed him, …

Kevin: ah, … thank you very much indeed,

Joe: right Kevin: Panoff, right “you” are Joe: right Kevin: I’ll tell her, Joe: thank you Kevin: bye bye Joe: bye










Opening the conversation










Exchanging information









Joe: right Kevin: Panoff, right “you” are Joe: right Kevin: I’ll tell her, Joe: thank you Kevin: bye bye Joe: byeExchanging a message









Joe: right Kevin: Panoff, right “you” are Joe: right Kevin: I’ll tell her, Joe: thank you Kevin: bye bye Joe: byeClosing the conversation

Opening conversations Need to pick who starts

Turn taking is typically not decided upon in advance Potentially a lot of ways to open, but we typically restrict

our openings to a few ways Address another Request information Offer information Use a stereotyped expression or topic

Opening conversations

Has to resolve: The entry time

Is now the time to converse? The participants

Who is talking to whom? Their roles

What is level of participation in the conversation? The official business

What is the conversation about?

Need to pick who starts Turn taking is typically not decided upon in advance Potentially a lot of ways to open

Taking turns Typically conversations don’t involve two (or more)

people talking at the same time Individual styles of turn-taking vary widely Length of a turn is a fairly stable characteristic

within a given individual’s conversational interactions

Standard signals indicate a change in turn: a head nod, a glance, a questioning tone


people talking at the same time

These principles are ordered in terms of priority The first is the most important, and the last is the least

important Just try violating them in an actual conversation (but debrief

later!)

Three implicit rules (Sacks et al, 1974) Rule 1: Current speakers selects next speaker Rule 2: Self-selection: if rule 1 isn’t used, then next speaker can

select themselves Rule 3: current speaker may continue (or not)


people talking at the same time

Use of non-verbal cues Drop of pitch Drawl on final syllable Termination of hand signals Drop in loudness Completion of a grammatical clause Use of stereotyped phrase

“you know”

Negotiating topics Keep the discourse relevant to the topic (remember

Grice’s maxims) Coherence again

Earlier we looked at coherence within a speaker, now we consider it across multiple speakers

Must use statements to signal topic shifts

Closing conversations Closing statements

Must exit from the last topic, mutually agree to close the conversation, and coordinate the disengagement

Signal the end of conversation (or topic) “Okay”

Justifying why conversation should end “I gotta go”

Reference to potential future conversation “Later dude”

Dialog is the key Why so little research on dialog?

Most linguistic theories were developed to account for sentences in de-contextualized isolation

Dialog doesn’t fit the competence/performance distinction well

Hard to do experimentally Conversations are interactive and largely unplanned

Pickering and Garrod (2004) Proposed that processing theories of language

comprehension and production may be flawed because of a focus on monologues

Processing models of dialog Pickering and Garrod (2004)

Interactive alignment model Alignment of situation

models is central to successful dialogue

Alignment at other levels is achieved via priming

Alignment at one level can lead to alignment at another

Model assumes parity of representations for production and comprehension

Summary “People use language for doing things with

each other, and their use of language is itself a joint action.” Clark (1996, pg387) Conversation is structured

But, that structure depends on more than one individual Models of language use (production and

comprehension) need to be developed within this perspective

psy 369: psycholinguistics production & comprehension: conversation

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