Changing perspective: Local alignment of reference frames in dialogue

Abstract:

In this paper we examine how people negotiate, interpret and repair the frame of reference (FoR) in free dialogues discussing spatial scenes. We describe a pilot study in which participants are given different perspectives of the same scene and asked to locate several objects that are only shown on one of their pictures. This task requires participants to coordinate on FoR in order to identify the missing objects. Preliminary results indicate that conversational participants align locally on FoR but do not converge on a global frame of reference. Misunderstandings lead to clarification sequences in which participants shift the FoR. These findings have implications for situated dialogue systems.

Research areas:

• Dialogue
• DiET chat tool
• Online text chat

Year:

2015

Type of Publication:

In Proceedings

Editor:

Christine Howes and Staffan Larsson

Book title:

Proceedings of the 19th SemDial Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue (goDIAL)

Pages:

24-32

Address:

Gothenburg, Sweden

Month:

August

ISSN:

2308-2275