THE PROCESS OF ANSWERING DIRECTION-GIVING QUESTIONS WHEN SOMEONE IS LOST ON A UNIVERSITY CAMPUS - THE ROLE OF PRAGMATICS

Two experiments investigated how college students answered direction-g iving questions when a confederate asked for directions to a destinati on on a university campus. The experiments applied the QUEST model (Gr aesser and Franklin, 1990) to direction giving, emphasizing the pragma tic component of the model that focuses on establishing common ground and dealing with the questioner's goals. The two experiments had diffe rent articulations of the direction-giving question (i.e.'How do you g et to destination X?' versus 'Where is destination X?'), and a differe nt destination. The answers generated by subjects supported both aspec ts of the pragmatic component.