| Abstract |
| The problems that participants in
conversation have, it is argued, are really joint problems and have to be managed
jointly. The participants have three types of strategies for managing them. (1) They
try to prevent foreseeable but avoidable problems. (2) They warn partners of
foreseeable but unavoidable problems. And (3) they repair problems that have already
arisen. Speakers and addressees coordinate actions at three levels of talk: (1) the
speaker's articulation and the addressee's attention to that articulation; (2) the
speaker's presentation of an utterance and the addressees' identification of that
utterance; and (3) the speaker's meaning and the addressees' understanding of that
meaning. There is evidence that the participants have joint strategies for preventing,
warning about and repairing problems at each of these levels. There is also evidence that
they prefer preventatives to warnings, and warnings to repairs, all other things being
equal. |
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