(Salle F08)
Welji, Haleema
Duncan, Susan
University of Chicago, Chicago
Collaboration and Narration : The role of shared
knowledge in the speech and gesture production
of friends and strangers
This presentation explores the ways in which both the structure
of discourse and the discourse management strategies employed
by speakers and addresses are impacted by shared knowledge, in a
comparison of narrations between friends and strangers. While prior
research in this area has not considered the nonverbal aspects of
dyadic communication, this study demonstrates that speakers employ
both speech and gesture differently depending on their ! relationship
with the addressee.
Participants in this study watched an elicitation stimulus (either a
cartoon or a short video), which they then narrated to either a friend
or a stranger. The roles were then reversed, each participant serving
as the speaker and listener.
Friends come to the narration task with a body of mutual knowledge,
which is critical for arriving at common referring expressions (Clark
1992). Shared knowledge is also used in creating conventions for
reference and when asking for help with discourse planning. Strangers
lack this shared background. Thus, speakers talking to a stranger
have more diffi culty with lexical search, while their listeners also
struggle to appropriately intervene with assistance. Strangers appear
to more rigidly adhere to the rules of turn-taking (Sacks, Schegloff,
& Jefferson, 1978), as manifested in offers of assistance/ repairs,
interruptions, turn length, etc., while friends permit greater overlap
and !freedom in these categories. Non-verbal behaviors, such as the
use of interactive gestures, gaze patterns, and treatment of the discourse
space also index the participants’ level of shared knowledge.
