Intrinsic misalignment in dialogue: Why there is no unique context in a conversation

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Linguistics
• Psychology

Background:

• Pickering & Garrod (P&G) proposed conversationalists don't explicitly track interlocutor information states.
• Alignment in conversation is thought to create symmetrical views of speaker/addressee information states.
• This symmetry is crucial for collaborative utterances and self-monitoring models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the claim that conversationalists do not explicitly track interlocutor information states.
• To examine the role of alignment in creating perceived symmetrical information states.
• To identify evidence of persistent contextual misalignment in conversation.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of conversational interactions.
• Examination of alignment mechanisms.
• Identification of contextual information states across conversational turns.

Main Results:

• Conversationalists appear to achieve a virtually symmetrical view of information states through alignment.
• Despite alignment, significant evidence of intrinsic contextual misalignment between conversationalists was found.
• This misalignment can persist across multiple conversational turns.

Conclusions:

• The concept of explicitly tracking interlocutor information states may be less critical than alignment.
• Alignment creates a functional, though not always accurate, shared understanding.
• Persistent contextual misalignment poses a challenge to fully symmetrical information state models in conversation.