REPAIRING CONVERSATIONAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND NON-UNDERSTANDINGS

Participants in a discourse sometimes fail to understand one another, but, when aware of the problem, collaborate upon or negotiate the mean ing of a problematic utterance. To address non-understanding, we have developed two plan-based models of collaboration in identifying the co rrect referent of a description: one covers situations where both conv ersants know of the referent, and the other covers situations, such as direction-giving, where the recipient does not. In the models, conver sants use the mechanisms of refashioning, suggestion and elaboration, to collaboratively refine a referring expression until it is successfu l. To address misunderstanding, we have developed a model that combine s intentional and social accounts of discourse to support the negotiat ion of meaning. The approach extends intentional accounts by using exp ectations deriving from social conventions in order to guide interpret ation. Reflecting the inherent symmetry of the negotiation of meaning, all our models can act as both speaker and hearer, and can play both the role of the conversant who is not understood or misunderstood and the role of the conversant who fails to understand.