Matthew E. Watson, Martin J. Pickering, and Holly P.
Branigan:
Flexible reference frames in dialogue
Abstract
Most work on investigating spatial language has used a monologue context;
however in psycholinguistics in general there has been an increase in the
amount of research using dialogue paradigms. This allows a much more naturalistic
investigation of language. In this paper we argue that it is important to
investigate spatial language in a dialogue context also. When in object locations
are described to another person in a conversation it is important that each
person knows which reference frame the other is using in order to correctly
interpret the utterance. We show that one way that interlocutors solve this
problem is by aligning the reference frames they use. Interlocutors are more
likely to use a reference frame if it has just been used by their partner
than if their partner used an alternative reference frame. This is in line
with other research which shows that interlocutors align at many level s
of representation (Pickering & Garrod, 2004). The dialogue paradigm also
offers insight into the representation of reference frames which may be much
more idiosyncratic and transient in dialogue than the previous literature
on spatial language suggests.
|
