Michael K. Tanenhaus
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Department of Linguistics
University of Rochester
Most approaches to pragmatics
assume that interlocutors must take into account each other's likely intentions
and knowledge. However, there is a
body of data from experiments with scripted utterances and confederates
suggesting that speakers and listeners are surprisingly egocentric when they
generate and interpret referring expressions. I will argue that investigating many pragmatic issues in
conversation will require examining real-time unscripted interactive
conversation in cooperative task-based dialog. I'll also present some proof-of-concept studies
demonstrating that it is possible to conduct such studies using a targeted
language game approach. I'll then present some preliminary data
from some work in progress that shows how this approach can be adopted to the
extent to which speakers and listeners are sensitive to the likely knowledge of
their interlocutors.
Reception to follow in 1413 Marie Mount Hall.