FUNCTIONAL DIALOGUES AND COLLECTIVE ACTIV ITIES

The study of functional dialogues in collective activities may contrib ute to the analysis of cooperative behaviour and thus to the definitio n of cooperative systems. In this perspective, several issues have to be raised: role of multi-modal communication (and more specifically ar ticulations between verbal and nan-verbal communication), role of the ostensive behavior in collective work, role of the dialogue in cogniti ve synchronization and in temporo-operational synchronization. A dialo gue is both a tool for fulfilling a task and an activity in itself, gi ving rise to specific mental representations. Several studies of funct ional dialogues illustrate this view. The first studies consider the e laboration and use of an interlocutor model in cooperative interaction . The following studies focus on the modalities of cooperation and of intelligent assistance, through the analysis of the dialogues occurrin g between the two actors of the situation.