Tests a process model of request tactic evaluation in two different cultures. Finds that, in both cultures, perceived effectiveness functions as a mediating variable between the four interactive constraints and perceived likelihood of use. Finds that Koreans rated concern for feelings and avoiding imposition highly, whereas Americans rated clarity…

Analyzes the distribution of 33 linguistic markers of complexity across 23 spoken and written registers of English. Identifies a five-dimensional model and uses it to describe the complexity characteristics of spoken and written registers. Finds that, whereas written registers exhibit profiles differing widely in extent and kind of complexity,…

Concludes that spatial information is available to readers only under very specific conditions. Notes that readers told to focus on spatial details had the information available, but that, when told to read for comprehension, spatial information did not become available. Finds also that spatial information was available only when it was required…

Contributes to communication theory and research by adding to a discussion of a computational model called latent semantic analysis (LSA). Argues that LSA does not handle all aspects of language processing, but offers a biologically and psychologically plausible mechanistic explanation of the acquisition, induction, and representation of verbal…

Tests a model of question answering called WHEN, which explains the answer descriptions that are generated when college students answer "when" questions. Finds that the answers given systematically varied as a function of temporal interval in a fashion that supported most of the production rules of the WHEN model. (RS)

Describes the seven main components of QUEST, a cognitive model of question answering that attempts to simulate the answers adults produce when they answer different types of questions, both closed class and open class. Illustrates how the model could be applied to different types of knowledge structures, including causal networks, goal…

Tests the QUEST model of question answering in two experiments. Examines which components of QUEST could predict good answers to why-questions and how-questions in the context of short stories. Supports the validity of arc-search procedures and structural distance for both question categories. Finds only partial support for number of information…

Tests the QUEST model of question answering in naturalistic settings and in settings with complex pragmatic constraints: telephone surveys, business interactions, filmed interviews, and interviews on popular television programs. Finds that QUEST explains most of the answers in these contexts and virtually all of the answers that refer to the…

Describes a recursive transition network model that analyzes and represents a story as a causal network of categorized clauses and labeled relations. Reports on two experiments using procedural criteria to identify inferences and the assumptions that inferences operate over distances in the text and are transitive, resulting in a network…

Explores whether speakers choose spatial perspectives to minimize effort. Discusses an experiment in which speakers describe locations on a display for addressees who shared their vantage point or had different views. Finds that same-viewpoint speakers spoke differently from speakers with offset views, who did not differ from each other reliably,…

Indicates a periodic structure in the distribution of between-turn silences in two-party conversation, a finding that is inconsistent with current stochastic or signaling models, which view social interaction as an exchange of stimuli and responses. Finds that social interaction is fundamentally a collaborative activity. (JD)

Studies discourse cohesion from the perspective of a speech/gesture synthesis. Presents cross-cultural evidence showing the joint contribution made by both speech and gesture to the process of creating discourse topics. Proposes a dialectical model of discourse production. (HB)

Analyzes conflict talk among three-year-old friends playing in same-sex triads at their day care center. Interprets the gendered aspects of two disputes in terms of an anthropological linguistic model and a psychological framework. Demonstrates the gendered nature of children's peer talk at as young as three years of age. (RS)

Investigates how readers use predication for the interpretation of referents in text and to develop a coherent model of the events described in text. Illustrates how two types of predication (scalar copredication and antipredication) induce readers to disambiguate the referents of definite noun phrases in essentially the opposite way, with…

Examines factors contributing to or interfering with the negotiation of meaning between non-English-speaking pupils and English-speaking teachers and peers. Proposes a model of interpretive processing with three hierarchically interrelated levels. Finds that, in certain situations, shared background knowledge is both necessary and sufficient for…