AI Article Synopsis
- Speakers may focus on their own ease of production and their addressees' ease of comprehension when producing ambiguous utterances in dialogue.
- Previous research indicated that while ease of production influences syntactic choices, ease of comprehension did not; however, new experiments show otherwise.
- The study found that participants adapted their language based on their partner's previous utterance and were more likely to clarify ambiguous statements when needed, indicating a consideration for how easily their messages would be understood.
Article Abstract
What affects speakers' production of ambiguous utterances in dialogue? They might consider ease of production for themselves, or ease of comprehension for their addressees. Previous research has demonstrated that ease of production plays a role in speakers' syntactic choices, but that ease of comprehension does not. However, such studies have not employed dialogues that involve role swapping on a turn-by-turn basis. In our experiment, participants alternated in giving and following instructions to move objects around on a grid. They tended to repeat the syntactic form just used by their interlocutor, reflecting sensitivity to ease of production. More interestingly, they were more likely to disambiguate their utterances when the visual context was potentially ambiguous than when it was not, reflecting sensitivity to ease of comprehension. We conclude that speakers pay attention to their beliefs about their addressees' ease of comprehension, in addition to considering ease of production for themselves.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01541.x | DOI Listing |
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