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Designing chatbots that produce language that is natural and appropriate to a given context is critical in satisfying user expectations. Currently, little is known about how a chatbot's linguistic choices should be designed to conform with the language humans produce in similar contexts. In this paper, we draw on existing sociolinguistic theory to adapt a technique calledregister analysis to (a) characterize the linguistic register used by humans in a specific conversational context; and (b) drive chatbot language design. Our exploratory study investigates the application of register analysis for tourist assistants chatbots and shows how the results could be used to develop them to adopt the appropriate register.

We describe experiments towards building a conversational digital assistant that considers the preferred conversational style of the user. In particular, these experiments are designed to measure whether users prefer and trust an assistant whose conversational style matches their own. To this end we conducted a user study where subjects interacted with a digital assistant that responded in a way that either matched their conversational style, or did not. Using self-reported personality attributes and subjects' feedback on the interactions, we built models that can reliably predict a user's preferred conversational style., Preprint

This master’s thesis deals with differences in conversational styles between men and women in American reality TV show Big Brother. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the conversations in order to find out whether there exist any differences between male and female speakers in the use of minimal responses, hedges, questions, swear words, overlapping speech and topics in mixed-gender and same-gender conversations. Nine conversations between ten different contestants of the reality TV show Big Brother were randomly selected, transcribed and analyzed. The results of this master’s thesis reveal that women use more hedges and minimal responses than men. There are, however, no gender differences in the placement of minimal responses. Both men and women produce the majority of minimal responses at non-transition relevant places. Furthermore, women swear less than men and use milder swear words. Men, on the other hand, are more inclined to use competitive overlapping speech. They also ask more expressive style questions than women, whereas women ask more relational questions than men. Lastly, there are no significant differences in topic choice between men and women. Poleg bioloških razlik med moškim in žensko, na razlike med spoloma močno vplivajo tudi sociološki dejavniki. Tako poleg biološkega spola govorimo tudi o družbenem spolu. Družba s svojimi predstavami o tem, kako naj bi se moški in ženske vedli in o lastnostih, ki naj bi jih posedovali, vpliva tudi na razlike v komunikaciji in uporabi jezika med spoloma. Na področju jezikovnih in komunikacijskih razlik med spoloma je bilo v zadnjih letih ogromno raziskav. Namen te naloge je raziskati razlike med spoloma v uporabi jezika v spolno mešanih in spolno ne-mešanih pogovorih med udeleženci ameriške resničnostne oddaje Big Brother. Zanimajo nas razlike med spoloma pri uporabi minimalnih reakcij (ang. minimal responses), previdnih jezikovnih oblik1 (ang. hedges), vprašanj, kletvic kot tudi teme pogovorov ter prekrivanje govora. Zanima nas, kakšne so razlike med moškim in ženskim govornim slogom v televizijski resničnostni oddaji Big Brother v kontekstu dosedanjih raziskav na tem področju. Prvi del naloge obsega pregled strokovne literature o dani temi. Drugi del pa predstavlja zbiranje podatkov ter njihovo analizo in interpretacijo. Na socialnem omrežju YouTube smo naključno izbrali devet video posnetkov pogovorov (tri spolno mešane ter po tri ženske in moške pogovore) iz 19. sezone ameriške televizijske resničnostne oddaje Big Brother. Video posnetke pogovorov smo nato ročno transkribirali. V nalogi smo uporabili naslednje metode: konverzacijska analiza, diskurzna analiza, sinteza. Podatke smo kvantitativno obdelali, s čimer smo lahko prikazali razlike med spoloma. Podatke smo prikazali v tabelarni in grafični obliki.

We present an end-to-end voice-based conversational agent that is able to engage in naturalistic multi-turn dialogue and align with the interlocutor's conversational style. The system uses a series of deep neural network components for speech recognition, dialogue generation, prosodic analysis and speech synthesis to generate language and prosodic expression with qualities that match those of the user. We conducted a user study (N=30) in which participants talked with the agent for 15 to 20 minutes, resulting in over 8 hours of natural interaction data. Users with high consideration conversational styles reported the agent to be more trustworthy when it matched their conversational style. Whereas, users with high involvement conversational styles were indifferent. Finally, we provide design guidelines for multi-turn dialogue interactions using conversational style adaptation.

The aim of this article is to explore the conversational style of Alice Munro in the collection of short stories Dance of the Happy Shades. While several critics have commented upon this characteristic trait of her style, especially in her first-person narratives, few have analysed how it is actually achieved. Using recent research on the conversational genre, Biber (1988, 2004), Chafe (1982) and Tannen (1982, 1989), I investigate which elements of the spoken mode are to be found in Munro’s writing, and how they are used in her fiction. Finally, I address the question of why Munro may have chosen to write in such a way, and the light that it may shed on her narrative technique in general.

Research indicates that adults form life story chapters, representations of extended time periods that include people, places and activities. Life chapter memories are distinct from episodic memories and have implications for behaviour, self and mental health, yet little is known about their development during childhood. Two exploratory studies examined parent–child conversations about life chapters. In Study 1, mothers recorded naturalistic conversations with their 5–6 year old children about two chapters in the child’s life. In Study 2, mothers recorded conversations with their 6–7 year old children about a particular life chapter—the child’s kindergarten year—and also about a specific episode of their choice. The results indicated that young children are able to recall and discuss information about life chapters and that parents actively scaffold children’s discussion of general information in chapters as well as specific events. Mothers’ conversational style when discussing chapters (e.g., elaborativeness) predicted children’s memory contributions, and was also positively correlated with their style when discussing specific events. The results suggest new avenues for research on the ontogeny of life chapters, the factors that shape them, and their role in development. Research indicates that adults form life story chapters, representations of extended time periods that include people, places and activities. Life chapter memories are distinct from episodic memories and have implications for behaviour, self and mental health, yet little is known about their development during childhood. Two exploratory studies examined parent–child conversations about life chapters. In Study 1, mothers recorded naturalistic conversations with their 5–6 year old children about two chapters in the child’s life. In Study 2, mothers recorded conversations with their 6–7 year old children about a particular life chapter—the child’s kindergarten year—and also about a specific episode of their choice. The results indicated that young children are able to recall and discuss information about life chapters and that parents actively scaffold children’s discussion of general information in chapters as well as specific events. Mothers’ conversational style when discussing chapters (e.g., elaborativeness) predicted children’s memory contributions, and was also positively correlated with their style when discussing specific events. The results suggest new avenues for research on the ontogeny of life chapters, the factors that shape them, and their role in development.

In this chapter, we argue that new media is not a threat, but an opportunity for speechmaking. Internet and video are potential vehicles for the speechwriter’s words, creating a renaissance of speechwriting. Speechmaking has earned its place in human history and contemporary society because of its distinguishing characteristics: A speech is not a text, but a physical and situational event unfolding in a specific sphere of time and space. It is an oral and physical performance highly dependent on the character and use of the speaker’s body and voice. Speeches are especially good at creating community and making a personal case. The chapter also addresses the everyday, conversational style, which dominates much contemporary speechmaking.

The increasing usage of chatbots is fundamentally changing the way people interact with new technology. Instead of clicking buttons to functionally navigate on a web page, people can access content and services by the use of natural language in interaction with an artificial agent (e.g., chatbot). This change toward human–chatbot interaction is typically manifested through a social and natural conversational style. This shift of how to interact with data and services has major repercussions for how to explore and measure conversational user experience with chatbots. Hence, in this paper we suggest the importance of measuring the social aspects in human–chatbot interaction through a focus on interpersonal communicational competence (ICC). We build our suggested framework on previous knowledge about communicational competence in successful human–human interaction. Based on this we have developed factors that might be of importance for chatbots’ ICC and how these can be measured.

like many of Roach’s previous books, Grunt provides an array of stimulating information about the most uncommon aspects of her topic, complete with sidesplitting climaxes and witty asides. Roach’s conversational style and self-deprecating humor provide a comfortable narrator, one who is non-judgmental about the reader’s expertise on the subject. Grunt is indeed a testament to the military’s capacity for ingenuity, to Roach’s perfectly timed punch lines, and to the celebration of quirky science.

This paper aims at finding verbal communication used by an interviewer and interviewee in Oprah Winfrey Show. The theory used in this research was Levine�s and Adelman theory. The data were taken from two different videos of Oprah Winfrey Show. This study used descriptive qualitative method. Based on the result of the research, in the first video, it was found 81 of high involvement and 129 of high considerateness used by Oprah and 54 of high involvement and 125 of high considerateness used by Thich, 21 directness and 20 indirectness used by Oprah and 18 directness and 21 indirectness used by Thich, 3 bowling conversational style applied by Oprah and Thich. In the second video, there were109 high involvement and 66 of high considerateness used by Oprah, 131 high involvement and 69 of high consideratness used by Alanis, 26 directness and 7 indirectness used by Oprah and 26 of directness and 7 of indirectness used by Alanis, and 1 ping-pong conversation used by Oprah and Alanis. In addition, there were the changes of communication style occured in the conversation between an interviewee and an interviewer in Oprah Winfrey Show that indicate that there are the influences of cultural background towards communication style.Keywords: Analysis, Verbal Communication, Oprah Winfrey Show

The article is devoted to identification and determination of various figures of substitution in the conversational style and transformations, used in their rendering into Ukrainian. The research has been done on the basis of the detective stories “Nemesis”, “Body in the library”, “A Caribbean mystery” by Agatha Christie translation into Ukrainian made by V. Musiienko, V. Khazin, V. Shovkun.There are various stylistic means in literature, which give an expressive-emotional colouring. They attract readers’ attention and involve them in reading. The need to transfer the images raises a number of difficulties that the translator faces. The practical part of the research involves the examples of figures of substitution usage in the conversation style of A. Christie’s characters and ways of their translation. The detective stories are full of examples of using such stylistic devices as a metaphor and epithet. In general, metaphors are translated into the Ukrainian language as follows: by a dictionary analogue, by a metaphorical word with the other image, by a non-metaphoric word with the loss of imagery. In most cases, the epithets were translated by adjectives, word-combinations and descriptive translation, and nouns. The translators use a huge variety of different transformations translating the figures of substitution in the characters’ conversation. They are synonymous substitution, contextual substitution, comprеssion, expressivation, negativation, transposition, permutation, decompression. Practically it was proved that translation process isn’t a simple replacement of units of one language with units of the other language. On the contrary, it is a difficult process including a number of difficulties which the translator needs to overcome.

This paper considers whether the sources of linguistic complexity presented within texts targeted at 1st-grade readers have increased, decreased, or held steady over the 52-year period from 1962 to 2013. A collection of more than 450 texts is examined. All texts were selected from Grade 1 textbooks published by Scott Foresman during the targeted time period. Analyses are implemented using the TextEvaluator® tool, a comprehensive text complexity evaluation tool designed to help teachers, textbook publishers, and test developers identify and quantify text-based sources of comprehension difficulty within informational, literary, and mixed texts. Results suggest that 1st-grade textbooks published over the past half century have included an increasing proportion of informational passages, and this shift has been accompanied by the following specific changes: (a) an increase in the proportion of words that tend to appear less frequently in printed text, (b) an increase in the proportion of words that are more characteristic of academic text as opposed to fiction or conversation, (c) lower levels of referential cohesion, (d) lower levels of narrativity, and (e) fewer instances of an interactive/conversational style. These findings suggest that, in contrast to the claim of a “general, steady decline” in textbook complexity, text-based sources of comprehension difficulty within Grade 1 texts have either risen or held steady throughout the past half century.

Mujammil Irfan Wiley-Blackwell, 2019, PB, 368pp, £29.19, 978-1119244035 The Hands-on Guide to Clinical Reasoning in Medicine aims to provide a practical approach to undertake clinical reasoning for medical students in their training years, newly qualified doctors, and advanced nurse practitioners. The book is written in an informal, conversational style with a friendly and coaching feel. To engage fully …

Objective There is ongoing poor evaluation of post-birth care and an urgent need to improve women's satisfaction. To develop and evaluate an acceptable and useable post-birth care plan template through collaboration with women and community midwives. Design Qualitative methodology using an action research design. Setting and participants: North East Scotland. 10 pregnant women and 6 community midwives. Findings Seven themes emerged from thematic analysis that informed the format of the PBCP template: being prepared for transitions, physical needs, psychosocial needs, cultural, religious and spiritual needs, organisation of care information, knowledge transfer, financial information and guidance. Key conclusions Women and midwives recognised the benefit of using a PBCP to ensure all information is covered and that care is individualised and organised according to cultural, social and physical needs, especially when there is fragmentation of services. The open conversational style of the PBCP provides opportunity to explore post-birth needs and how they develop over time. Implications for practice PBCPs provide an opportunity for women to explore their post-birth needs with their midwife, enabling them to have meaningful, respectful conversations with their midwives during the antenatal and post-birth period. This has the potential to increase women's satisfaction with their care and is particularly pertinent in regions where fragmentary systems of care are prevalent.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the potential effects of two social cues on learning outcomes, cognitive load, and intrinsic motivation in a computer-based environment in an Asian context. A total of 98 Chinese college students were randomly assigned into one of four experimental conditions formed by a 2 (agent vs. no agent) X 2 (conversational style vs. formal style) factorial design. Results revealed that (a) learning with a pedagogical agent was more interesting than learning without a pedagogical agent; (b) learning from a lesson written in a conversational style enhanced retention but also resulted in increased pressure; and (c) a pedagogical agent delivering instruction in a conversational style led to an increase in mental effort, but instruction delivered in this style without a pedagogical agent led learners to perceive it as less difficult. These findings support the use of a pedagogical agent to deliver instruction in a conversational style to Chinese learners. But parsimonious instructional designs, such as a design to deliver instruction in a conversational style without an animated pedagogical agent, also have advantages under some circumstances, particularly when the learning materials are not so difficult and when advanced technology cannot be utilized or afforded.

'If...we feel better able to express and explore who we are, we may find that our health practice can also become a 'self-practice' in which we can create healthier existences for ourselves too. At the heart of it all communication is the search for brighter light, for insight, even for enlightenment. Insight illuminates darkness, listening fosters understanding, and speaking helps dispel the seeds of despair. That is the virtuous cycle that lies at the heart of effective practice.' Justin Amery This extraordinary new series fills a void in practitioner development and well-being. The books take a reflective step back from the tick-box, target-driven and increasingly regulated world of 21st century health practice; and invite us to revisit what health and health practice actually are. Building carefully on the science and philosophy of health, each book addresses the messy, complex and often chaotic world of real-life health practice and offers an ancient but now almost revolutionary understanding for students and experienced practitioners alike: that health practice is a fundamentally creative and compassionate activity. The series as a whole helps practitioners to redefine and recreate their daily practice in ways that are healthier for both patients and practitioners. The books provide a welcome antidote to demoralisation and burn-out amongst practitioners, reversing cynicism and reviving our feeling of pride in, and our understanding of, health practice. By observing practice life through different lenses, they encourage the development of efficiency, effectiveness and, above all, satisfaction. The Integrated Practitioner: Co-creating in Health Practice is the second book in the series. It focuses on communication and considers the unusual but highly powerful relationship between physicians and patients within which 'better health' is 'co-created'. It offers new ideas on various ways of communicating in practice that inspire healthier and happier existences for both patients and practitioners. Brilliantly written, practitioners, students and trainees and GP trainers will find the enlightening, witty, conversational style a joy to read.

The aim of the chapter is to present stereotyping as an important discourse strategy and culture-specific linguistic phenomena in tourism advertising discourse. Stereotyping in tourism advertising occurs when the authors of advertisments generalise underlining only those qualities that make a competitive advantage of the advertisied product. Stereotypes therefore play the key role in constituting the identity of tourism product. Besides the tourism product, also the addressee is stereotyped, since the persuasion strategy of the tourism advertising should be adapted to a generalised representation of the specific target audience. In the chapter the stereotyping in the tourism advertising discourse is observed regarding the choice of arguments and modification of their intensity. Further, the intercultural comparison is made between the arguments and their modification in Slovenian and Italian tourism advertising texts. In the final part of the chapter the metaphorization is shown as a discourse strategy complementary to stereotyping.

Motivational interviewing is a strategic conversational style that can clarify ambivalence and help an individual move toward making a decision about important life changes. Initially intended for use with clients struggling with substance abuse concerns, motivational interviewing has rapidly expanded its evidence-based use in diverse populations and settings, including physical and mental healthcare, education, and the criminal justice and correctional systems. In this chapter, readers will find a summary of the primary tenets of motivational interviewing, including the spirit of motivational interviewing and the basics of engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. The chapter will also summarize reasons for the use of motivational interviewing with court-ordered populations, research evidence for its effectiveness with adults and youth receiving treatment for violent and nonviolent problematic or illegal behaviors, how it impacts clients at various stages of change, and future directions for the field. Importantly, the chapter includes a fictionalized account of how motivational interviewing may be implemented with a court-ordered client. Practitioners, systems administrators, and researchers alike will find ample information to foster their interest in the use of motivational interviewing with a range of clients who are receiving court-ordered treatment to improve their lives and reduce risk of future harm to themselves and others in their communities.

When have we really understood a proof, an argument, a computational technique? This question is fundamental to every serious student. In this chapter we propose another possible answer: when we are able to explain it to somebody else. In order to do this, we may need to run the proof on a few examples, to understand the idea, to divide the argument into steps, to check every small annoying detail, etc. We ask the reader to read the proofs (solutions) of several theorems (problems) and to check that they are correct, both in general and, if possible, through ad hoc examples. We then ask the reader to identify the idea(s) behind the proof (solution) and write the idea(s) in a conversational style. The solution of each exercise suggests several further questions, which are partially addressed in the final section “Want to know more?”.

In recent decades, Croatian syntax has been continuously recording more examples of ‘syntactic borrowing’ that have become a part of Croatian linguistic reality by means of electronic media. The English language is nowadays most commonly considered to be the main culprit of the disintegration of the Croatian linguistic, and therefore syntactic, norm. However, we are also witnessing the transfer of syntactic constructions from one functional style to another for no reason and, of course, completely incorrectly. This paper provides an overview of contemporary grammatical and advisory literature on the linguistic features of the Croatian syntax at the turn of the 21st century. The examples given have been taken from the journalistic and conversational functional styles.

The familiar format was one of a number of different literary styles adopted by popularizers of science in the first half of the nineteenth century. Many authors, especially women, felt comfortable utilizing it, and felt it well served their intended audience of children and potential teachers (including mothers). But there were other audiences to reach, as well as authors who were not predisposed to writing in a conversational style. This chapter surveys examples of both of these.

Resumo: Partindo de reflexões do filme Anomalisa e apoiando-se no conceito foucaultiano de biopoder, este ensaio discute os limites do ensino de habilidades de comunicação clínica na formação em medicina. A comunicação com pacientes não se relaciona ao uso (ou não-uso) de certas frases ou de determinado estilo de conversa, mas significa a busca de uma maneira de interagir com o outro em meio à desordem do mundo, à arrebatadora onda de sofrimento e ao intervalo de tempo assustador entre a vida e a morte. Nesse cenário em que figuram as tecnobiociências e imperam as evidências científicas, para além dos protocolos ou da padronização dos modos de se praticar a clínica, propõe-se um debate sobre o ensino da comunicação com ênfase na produção de subjetividades, de modo a veicular um chamamento à reflexão sobre valores desejáveis para a atuação no campo da saúde. Abstract: Based on reflections on the film Anomalisa and Foucault's concept of biopower, this essay discusses the limits of teaching clinical communication skills in medical training. Communication with patients is not related to the use (or lack thereof) of certain phrases or a given conversational style, but involves the search for a way of interacting with the other in the midst of the world's disorder, the overwhelming wave of suffering, and the frightening lapse of time between life and death. In this scenario featuring biotechnoscience and the reign of scientific evidence, beyond protocols or standardized ways of practicing medicine, the proposal here is for a debate on teaching communication with an emphasis on the production of subjectivities, in order to issue a call for reflection on desirable values for action in the health field. Resumen: Partiendo de las reflexiones de la película Anomalisa, y apoyándose en el concepto foucaultiano de biopoder, este ensayo discute los límites de la enseñanza de habilidades de comunicación clínica en la formación en medicina. La comunicación con pacientes no se relaciona con el uso (o no-uso) de ciertas frases o de un determinado estilo de conversación, sino que significa la búsqueda de una manera de interactuar con el prójimo, en medio del caos del mundo, la arrebatadora ola de sufrimiento y el intervalo de tiempo aterrador entre la vida y la muerte. Es en ese escenario donde se ubican las tecnobiociencias e imperan las evidencias científicas, en el que además de los protocolos o de la estandarización de los modos de práctica clínica, se propone un debate sobre la enseñanza de la comunicación, con énfasis en la producción de subjetividades, de modo que se viabilice un llamamiento a la reflexión sobre valores deseables para la actuación en el campo de la salud.

Conversations about the past support the development of autobiographical memory. Parents' strategies to elicit child's participation and recall during past event conversations were compared across three school-age diagnostic groups: autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 11), developmental language disorders (n = 11) and typically developing (TD, n = 11). We focused on the prevalence of directives versus enrichment of events. Groups did not differ in number of events, length, and total turns. However, parents of children with ASD produced more direct questions, corrections, and unrelated turns than parents of TD children. Results highlight how parents adjusted their conversational style to their child's communication difficulties to maximize interactions and how these strategies may affect the development of personal conversations.

Archival institutions are increasingly participating in social media as a form of digital outreach. The affordances of popular online platforms such as Twitter allow managers of institutional accounts to highlight digital content, publicize events, and interact with users who might not otherwise know about the institution. This article presents a picture of archival activity on Twitter, using data collected from 34 institutions during October 2011. The sample accounts range from formal broadcasting of information to a more informal, conversational style. This article seeks to understand current institutional behavior on the platform and asks, "What are archival institutions doing on Twitter?"

This essay examines the little explored relationship between communication and Jewish identity, using communication as a means through which to open a discussion on the state of American Jewish identity in the twenty-first century. Focusing in particular on the topics of conversational style and gesture, this paper draws both on historical studies of Jewish behaviour and a contemporary analysis of the television sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm to determine the extent to which identifiably Jewish behaviours continue to be seen in the United States, before seeking to explore the impact of these behaviours on shaping, maintaining and reinforcing American Jewish identity.

Previous studies have shown that speakers tend to speak more clearly when they speak with a listener in adverse listening conditions in naturalistic settings. Most previous studies assumed that when speakers speak more clearly, they maintain the style throughout the conversation. However, a clear speech style deviates from speakers’ conversational speaking style, and extra effort is required in order to produce clear speech. Therefore, it is possible that speakers begin a conversation in a clear speaking style and revert back to a conversational style at some point during the conversation. This study aims to examine whether native English speakers use and maintain a clear speaking style while participating in a conversation with non-native speakers in naturalistic settings. Native English listeners will respond to sentences from naturalistic conversations. The sentences are from either a conversation between two native English speakers or a conversation between a native English speaker and a non-native English speaker. Intelligibility (typing what the listeners heard) and comprehensibility (rating how easy it is to understand the sentences) are measured to examine the usage of clear speech throughout the conversations. The results of this study will provide a better understanding of the circumstances under which speakers use clear speech.Previous studies have shown that speakers tend to speak more clearly when they speak with a listener in adverse listening conditions in naturalistic settings. Most previous studies assumed that when speakers speak more clearly, they maintain the style throughout the conversation. However, a clear speech style deviates from speakers’ conversational speaking style, and extra effort is required in order to produce clear speech. Therefore, it is possible that speakers begin a conversation in a clear speaking style and revert back to a conversational style at some point during the conversation. This study aims to examine whether native English speakers use and maintain a clear speaking style while participating in a conversation with non-native speakers in naturalistic settings. Native English listeners will respond to sentences from naturalistic conversations. The sentences are from either a conversation between two native English speakers or a conversation between a native English speaker and a non-native En...

Thinking Literature Across Continents, Ranjan Ghosh and J. Hillis Miller’s co-authored book, is based on a method implying a critical dialogue, with double chapters conceived both as a reflection and a response to the other author’s viewpoint on the same topic. The format leads to a lively conversational style (though often veering toward the abstract with Ghosh), for a discussion solidly framed by theory, and, notably with Miller, amply rooted in the close reading of a range of literary text...

Extensive acoustic and perceptual analyses have been carried out on the materials from the Ferguson Clear Speech Database (FCSD), which was recorded at Indiana University in 2002. The FCSD consists of 41 untrained talkers reading 188 sentences under instructions first to speak in a manner “as much like your normal conversational style as possible” and later to “speak clearly, so that a hearing-impaired person would be able to understand you.” My intent in developing the FCSD was to exploit the expected wide acoustic and perceptual variability among the talkers and use a talker-differences approach to answer the question, “What makes clear speech clear?” In this presentation, I will summarize data from studies of vowel intelligibility, word intelligibility, and perceived sentence clarity along with global and fine-grained acoustic analyses, and discuss how all of these measures are related across the 41 talkers. My hope is that this birds-eye view of the FCSD data will reveal subgroups of talkers in which the talkers adopted certain “profiles” of clear speech acoustic changes that yielded specific helpful perceptual changes. If time permits, I will also review data on perceived talker indexical properties and how they change when talkers speak clearly.

Previous research has shown that native and non-native listeners’ recognition memory is higher for sentences previously heard in clear speech (CS) than in conversational speech (Keerstock and Smiljanic, 2018). The present study investigated whether speaking clearly also enhances talkers’ sentence recognition memory. The production effect (MacLeod et al., 2010) revealed superior retention of material read aloud relative to material read silently during an encoding phase. Vocal production that included an additional distinct element, such as speaking loudly, produced even greater memory benefits than reading aloud (Quinlan and Taylor, 2013). Production of the exaggerated articulatory and acoustic cues in CS could thus lead to enhanced sentence recognition memory relative to conversational style. Native and non-native English speakers produced alternating blocks of 10 conversational and CS sentences for a total of 60 unique sentences. In the test phase, they identified 120 sentences as old (from exposure) or new (distractors). Unexpectedly, preliminary results show lower sentence recognition memory for sentences produced in CS than in conversational speech for both groups of talkers. The results suggest that producing CS, unlike perceiving it, interferes with recognition memory. Allocating cognitive resources to producing hyper-articulated speech may limit their availability for storing information in memory.

Human conversation groups have a characteristic size limit at around four individuals. Although mixed-sex social groups can be significantly larger than this, census data on casual social groups suggest that there is a fractal pattern of fission in conversations when social group size is a multiple of this value. This study suggests that, as social group size increases beyond four, there is a tendency for sexual segregation to occur resulting in an increasing frequency of single-sex conversational subgroups. It is not clear why conversations fragment in this way, but a likely explanation is that sex differences in conversational style result in women (in particular) preferring to join all-female conversations when a social group is large enough to allow this.

Purpose In services for adults with intellectual disabilities, various staff members may have different key word signing (KWS) skills and conversational style. Little is known about how these clients use KWS with different staff members. Therefore, we observed staff–client conversations and examined how clients' KWS usage was shaped by staff members' KWS usage and conversational style. Method Three 10-min dyadic conversations between an adult with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities ( N = 15) and three familiar staff members were filmed and transcribed. The KWS usage and conversational responsivity in the transcriptions was analyzed at group (using generalized estimating equations), subgroup, and individual levels. Results Clients appeared to produce significantly more KWS as partners imitated more signs and as partners were more responsive. There was a negative interaction between these two factors. Subgroup analyses showed that spontaneity of clients' KWS usage was a continuum. Conclusion Findings suggest that staff can encourage clients' KWS usage by imitating manual signs but that clients' response efficiency should also be taken into account.

At dawn, a huge and pale blanket of fog covers the valleys of the Rimac, Chillon, and Lurin Rivers, hiding a vast territory of 1,088 square miles from the rising sun. Under the haze, the sprawling city of Lima begins its daily life, taking a deep breath of Pacific Ocean mist and moving its rusty machinery of metal, cement, and 10 million people. No matter the season—winter or summer, autumn or spring, no matter the era—pre-Hispanic, colonial, or modern—the mist homogenizes buildings, peoples, and highways at this time of the day.

The purpose of this study was to examine maternal parenting styles across age-matched siblings using a within-family design, in which one child has Fragile X syndrome. Thirteen families participated; children were aged 16 to 71 months. Mothers completed several videotaped activities with each child separately as well as an interview. Mothers used a consistent, responsive style with both children, using the same degree of positive affect and warmth. Differences included using more behavior management strategies with the child with Fragile X and a conversational style of interaction with the sibling. Differences in approaches suggest the mothers adapted to the developmental differences between the children. The interview data supported these findings; mothers were aware of the changes made to accommodate the developmental differences.

This paper intends to compare the conversational styles and the preference structure between Oprah shows in FRIENDS which is in a group guest and J.K. Rowling in a single guest. The data were taken from two different videos of Oprah transcribed and analysed. In FRIENDS edition, the conversational style is high considerateness style and in J.K. Rowling edition is high involvement style. The conversation in FRIENDS edition is relatively slower than in J.K. Rowling edition. Oprah as the host uses high involvement style in both editions. In FRIENDS edition, the first part of pairs that mostly occurs is question which the second part is expected answer, while J.K. Rowling is assessment which the second part is agreement. It means that they prefer using positive response rather than negative response.

L’adresse à autrui est une activité capitale de l’échange, d’autant plus essentielle à la radio qu’elle sert de guidage pour l’appréhension de la scène d’énonciation par les auditeurs, leur permettant de discriminer la personne à qui le locuteur en place adresse son propos. Elle joue également un rôle important dans la construction de l’interaction et dans la mise en scène de la relation interpersonnelle. Notre but est de proposer une modélisation de l’adressage dans les émissions radiophoniques d’information de deux médias du service public : France Inter et ABC Australia. L’analyse tentera de répondre aux questions suivantes :– quand et pourquoi surviennent les formes nominales d’adresse et quelles sont leurs configurations ({prénom}, {prénom + patronyme}, (appellatif + patronyme}, voire d’autres configurations moins prototypiques) ?Y a-t-il des différences significatives entre les médias français et anglophones ? Autrement dit, les formes nominales d’adresse sont-elles prédéterminées culturellement (adressage différent selon les langues-cultures, lié à l’ethos communicatif des peuples en question), ou bien sont-elles seulement en relation avec les types d’interaction et les genres du discours (journaux d’information, revue de presse, interview et volet interactif avec intervention directe des auditeurs), dans les médias sélectionnés ?Après avoir fait l’inventaire comparé des formes nominales d’adresse dans les deux matinales, l’article analyse leurs emplois dans différentes positions à l’intérieur des séquences que constituent les rubriques, puis interroge les phénomènes de symétrie et d’asymétrie dans les termes employés. Enfin, dans une dernière partie, il montre comment les FNA sont partie prenante de la négociation sur l’axe coopération / conflit. Au terme de cette analyse, certaines idées préconçues sur l’ethos communicatif français et australien seront remises en cause. The various forms of address used by participants towards each other are always an important component of any interaction. It is even more so in radio broadcasts, where they provide crucial clues for the listener who needs to identify who the journalist is talking to. At the same time, they play an important part in the way the interpersonal relationship is managed and displayed for the listening public.The aim of this paper is to come up with a description of how the address system works in the morning news programs of two national public service radio stations : France’s France Inter “La matinale” and Australia’s ABC Radio National Breakfast. The analysis will address the following questions :When and why are particular forms of address used by participants and what are the typical combinations (i.e. {first name}, {first name + last name}, {title + last name}) and other less expected ones ?Are there any significant differences between the French and the Australian media ? In other words, can observed variations in the forms of address be explained by culturally determined communicative styles or are they more dependent on context and discourse genres (news flashes, media reviews, interviews, phone-in sessions…) ?After a comparative inventory of all the forms present in the two corpora, the paper analyses their use according to different criteria : their position in the exchange and in the turn-taking system, their reciprocity or non-reciprocity and their pragmatic role in the management of consensus or conflict. The final conclusion questions pre-existing stereotypes regarding French and Australian communicative styles.

This paper is taken from a presentation one of us (EN) had hoped to give at the 2010 ASET Annual Conference. In it EN provides evidence that in true Alzheimer dementia (AD), memory loss is the initially dominating problem due to deterioration of the circulation in the hippocampus, which has a vulnerable blood supply to begin with. Brain pathology is likely to be secondary. Could this situation be prevented, or even reversed, with simple techniques like "head-down therapy"? What was planned to be an oral presentation by EN could not materialize because of his illness. Thanks to Janet Ghigo's invaluable assistance, our efforts have resulted in this joint presentation. The paper is presented in the conversational style Dr. Niedermeyer would have used in his oral presentation. This style reminds AJET readers of both Dr. Niedermeyer's unquenchable curiosity and his infectious enthusiasm about all research.

For question–answer sequences in Australian Aboriginal talk, it has been claimed that answers are not necessarily a required response. This would contrast with findings reported in recent cross-linguistic work on such sequences. In a corpus of 62 question sequences from conversations in two Garrwa communities on the west side of the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia, 34 questions were answered, and a further 12 dealt with the question in some other way. Sixteen received no response in the proximally subsequent talk. Whilst most of these questions were answered, the offset time between question and response was long compared to previous studies. There was also a higher rate of non-answers and non-responses. For some cases of non-responses, contingent factors easily explained the lack, but in a few the reasons were not so apparent. It is argued that a significant factor in the relatively long silence between question and answer, and the relatively high rate of non-answers or non-responses, is that t...

Sentences produced in a clear speech speaking style are typically more intelligible than sentences produced in a conversational style. However, factors that lead to the intelligibility difference are not fully understood. This study investigated the role of semantic context in intelligibility of temporally compressed clear and conversational speech. Grammatically correct English sentences, which were either semantically meaningful or semantically anomalous, were presented to 70 normal-hearing listeners in clear or conversational speaking style. The sentences were temporally compressed to produce seven different syllabic rates (6-12), matched across clear and conversational sentences to control for the original durational differences between clear and conversational speech. Results for semantically anomalous sentences indicate no differences in the rate of intelligibility decline across compression rates for clear and conversational speech. In contrast, for semantically meaningful sentences, the rate of intelligibility decline was smaller for the semantically meaningful clear-speech sentences over semantically anomalous conversational-speech sentences. At the highest compression rate of 12 syllables per second, intelligibility of semantically meaningful clear-speech sentences (~68% correct) was similar to that of semantically anomalous sentences at 9 syllables per second. These findings suggest that semantic context can modulate the effect of speaking style on the intelligibility of temporally compressed sentences.