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Interaction and Syntax in the Structure of Conversational Discourse: Collaboration, Overlap, and Syntactic Dissociation

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Computational and Conversational Discourse

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NATO ASI F,volume 151))

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the relationship between interaction and syntax. Using a database of conversational American English, we show how what has traditionally been taken as ‘syntax’ is intimately involved in the interactional organization of conversational discourse, and we propose a way of thinking about syntax which allows us to integrate the production of syntactic units with interactional structure. We suggest that conversational structure is dependent on a dynamic, interactional notion of syntax. We suggest that examining how syntax works in actual interaction can lead us to a clearer understanding of what syntax is. We hope that an examination of linguistic production in conversation, the most mundane form of linguistic activity, will illuminate the way linguistic resources are exploited in actual production, and that it will further show us how syntactic structures are organized.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Arizona, USA

    Tsuyoshi Ono

  2. University of California in Santa Barbara, USA

    Sandra A. Thompson

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  1. Tsuyoshi Ono
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  2. Sandra A. Thompson
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  1. Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California, 4676 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey, California, 90292-6695, USA

    Eduard H. Hovy

  2. Information Technology Research Institute, University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Brighton, BN2 4NT, UK

    Donia R. Scott

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Ono, T., Thompson, S.A. (1996). Interaction and Syntax in the Structure of Conversational Discourse: Collaboration, Overlap, and Syntactic Dissociation. In: Hovy, E.H., Scott, D.R. (eds) Computational and Conversational Discourse. NATO ASI Series, vol 151. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03293-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03293-0_3

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