Communication and Miscommunication

Patrick Healey (University of London)
Communication and Miscommunication

What is successful communication? The answer to this question defines our concepts of meaning and representation in natural language. This lecture will explore these interrelationships in the context of the different lines of empirical investigation that they suggest. We will review some important contemporary empirical models of language processing in conversation including accomodation and priming, "simulation" and "mimicry" and grounding and collaboration. I will argue that cycles of repair and clarification are key to successful communication.