Controlling the intelligibility of referring expressions in dialogue

If speakers articulate clearly enough to meet the perceptual needs of their listeners, clarity should depend on what listeners know about (listener-Gi ven) rather than on what speakers know about (speaker-Given). For words exc erpted from spontaneous speech, however, intelligibility to naive adult lis teners showed only effects of the speaker's knowledge. Words introducing la beled map landmarks to two successive listeners were less clear on repetiti on even though the second listener had not heard the original mention (Expe riment 1). Repeated mentions became less clear even after the listener repo rted inability to see the landmark (Experiment 2). Speakers were affected b y what they had heard listeners mention: Intelligibility fell equally in co referential repetitions across and within speakers (Experiment 3), whether or not the repeater could see the referent (Experiment 4). The results are explained via fast priming processes dependant on the speaker's knowledge a nd slow, optional processes drawing inferences about the listener's. (C) 20 00 Academic Press.