Communication is a goal-oriented activity where interlocutors use language as a means to achieve an end while taking into account the goals and plans of others. Game theory, being the scientific study of strategically interactive decision-making, provides the mathematical tools for modeling language use among rational decision makers. When we…

Conversational grounding theory proposes that language use is a form of rational joint action, by which dialog participants systematically and collaboratively add to their common ground of shared knowledge and beliefs. Following recent work applying "game theory" to pragmatics, this thesis develops a game-theoretic model of grounding that…