Communicating with One Another: Toward a Psychology of Spontaneous Spoken Discourse (Cognition and Language: A Series in Psycholinguistics)

"A unique view of language studies throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries: where the mainstream emphasis has been, what has been missing, and what remedies are needed. In other words, this book is a call for a paradigm shift in the study of oral communication. It is a must read for people interested in language use, as well as for specialists in language studies." __Camelia Suleiman, Ph.D., Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA__"The authors have identified crucial theoretical and methodological assumptions that have hampered scholarship on language use. Their critical assessment is grounded in nuanced theoretical analysis and rigorous empirical studies. As a result, they reveal the complexity, elegance, and moral aspects of day to day dialogical communication." __Kevin P. Weinfurt, Ph.D., Duke University, Durham, NC, USA__ In contrast to traditional approaches of mainstream psycholinguists, the authors of Communicating with One Another approach spontaneous spoken discourse as a dynamic process, rich with structures, patterns, and rules other than conventional grammar and syntax. Daniel C. O’Connell and Sabine Kowal thoroughly critique mainstream psycholinguistics, proposing instead a shift in theoretical focus from experimentation to field observation, from monologue to dialogue, and from the written to the spoken. They invoke four theoretical principles: intersubjectivity, perspectivity, open-endedness, and verbal integrity. Their analyses of historical and original research raise significant questions about the relationship between spoken and written discourse, particularly with regard to transcription and punctuation. With emphasis on political discourse, media interviews, and dramatic performance, the authors review both familiar and unexplored characteristics of spontaneous spoken communication, including: * The speaker’s use of prosody. * The functions of interjections. * What fillers do for a living. * Turn-taking: Smooth and otherwise. * Laughter, applause, and booing: from individual listener to collective audience. * Pauses, silence, and the art of listening. The paradigm shift proposed in Communicating with One Another will interest and provoke readers concerned about communicative language use – including psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and anthropological linguists. In Contrast To Traditional Approaches Of Mainstream Psycholinguists, The Authors Of 'communicating With One Another' Approach Spontaneous Spoken Discourse As A Dynamic Process, Rich With Structures, Patterns, And Rules Other Than Conventional Grammar And Syntax.--publisher's Description. Part 1 A Critique Of Mainstream Psycholinguistics -- 1 The Problematic 3 -- Chapter Prospectus 3 -- What's It All About? 3 -- Historical Beginnings Of Mainstream Psycholinguistics 4 -- The More Remote Background Of Modern Psycholinguistics 5 -- The Cognitive Revolution 5 -- Some Current Criticisms Of Mainstream Psycholinguistics 6 -- The Centrality Of Grammar In Mainstream Psycholinguistics 7 -- Ideal Delivery: A Corollary Of Syntactic Well-formedness 8 -- The Users Of Language 10 -- The Autonomy Of Language 12 -- 2 Empirical Methods 13 -- Chapter Prospectus 13 -- Homo Loquens Et Audiens 13 -- Transmittal Of Data By Transcribers 15 -- The Experimental Method 16 -- Fellow Travelers Of Psycholinguistics 16 -- An Example Of Experimental Psycholinguistics 17 -- The Demand For Continuity In Speaking 18 -- Methodology In Psycholinguistic Textbooks: The Relationship Of Data And Theory 19 -- Monologism 20 -- A Monologistic Approach To Dialogue 21 -- Turn-taking 22 -- Methodological Individualism 22 -- The Need For Normalization Of Data 23 -- Access To Corpora Of Spontaneous Spoken Discourse 23 -- Use Of Transcripts Prepared By Others 24 -- Back To Issues Of Control 25 -- 3 Fluency And Hesitation 27 -- Chapter Prospectus 27 -- Chicken Or Egg? 27 -- Ideal Delivery Vs. Discontinuity 30 -- The Use Of Time For The Sake Of The Speaker 31 -- The Use Of Time For The Sake Of The Listener 32 -- Fluency 33 -- 4 The Written 35 -- Chapter Prospectus 35 -- Verba Volant, Scripta Manent 35 -- Generation And The Written 36 -- The Written As The Cadaver Of Speech 38 -- Transcription 39 -- Transcription As Theory 43 -- Part 2 Foundations For Research On Spontaneous Spoken Discourse -- 5 Rhetoric 47 -- Chapter Prospectus 47 -- What Rhetoric Is All About 47 -- Some Typographical Helps To Rhetoric 50 -- Some Prosodic Principles 50 -- Some Other Relevant Measures Of Rhetorical Performance 51 -- Literacy And Orality 53 -- Orality As A Rationale For Our Research 55 -- A Rhetorical Perspective For Everyday Talk 56 -- 6 Intentionality 57 -- Chapter Prospectus 57 -- Starting, Stopping, And Continuing 57 -- A Historical Note On Intentionality 60 -- 7 From Monologism To Dialogicality 63 -- Chapter Prospectus 63 -- Where Are We? 63 -- Mainstream Psycholinguistics And Monologism 66 -- Is All Human Speech In Principle Dialogical? 68 -- 8 Listening 69 -- Chapter Prospectus 69 -- Listening Vs. Hearing 69 -- The Listener's Disappearing Act 71 -- Agonistic Listeners? 73 -- The Transcendence Of Listening 73 -- The Ideal Listener 74 -- Types Of Listeners 74 -- Active Silence 75 -- Part 3 Empirical Research On Spontaneous Spoken Discourse -- 9 Punctuation 79 -- Chapter Prospectus 79 -- Benign Neglect 79 -- Syntax, Rhetoric, Or Both? 80 -- What Can Punctuation Tell Us About Reading Aloud? 81 -- The Written Without Punctuation 84 -- Other Concepts Of Punctuation 85 -- The Problem Of Reading Quotation Marks Aloud 85 -- 10 Transcription 89 -- Chapter Prospectus 89 -- The Transcriber As Language User 89 -- Some Transcriber Difficulties And Biases 90 -- Slips Of The Ear 92 -- Some Limitations Of Transcripts 93 -- Reproduction Of Transcripts For Research Purposes 94 -- The Diagnosis 96 -- 11 Pauses 99 -- Chapter Prospectus 99 -- On Again, Off Again 100 -- The History Of Pause Research: Pausology 101 -- Off-time As A Research Problem 103 -- A Benevolent Take-over By Conversation-analytic Researchers 104 -- The Proper Temporal Dimensionality Of Pauses: Measurement 105 -- Our Own Research On Pauses 106 -- Silence 109 -- 12 Prosody 113 -- Chapter Prospectus 113 -- Prosody And Meaning 115 -- The Transcription Of Prosody 116 -- Research 117 -- Our Research On Articulation Rate 119 -- Futuristics 119 -- 13 Fillers 121 -- Chapter Prospectus 121 -- The Remarkably Versatile Schwa 121 -- The Lexicographer's Written World Of Fillers 122 -- Fillers In Written Materials 125 -- Some Filler History: The Carrier Of Disfluency 126 -- What Are Fillers Really Good For? 127 -- Our Own Research On Fillers 129 -- The Failure To Legitimize Fillers As Words 130 -- 14 Interjections 133 -- Chapter Prospectus 133 -- Some History 133 -- Interjections In Modern Language Sciences 135 -- Recent Empirical Research 136 -- 15 Referring 143 -- Chapter Prospectus 143 -- Referring 143 -- Deixis 144 -- Laughter As A Nonverbal Self-reference 146 -- Some Recent Research On Referring 146 -- 16 Turn-taking 149 -- Chapter Prospectus 149 -- Categories Of Turn-taking 149 -- Is There A Normal Or An Ideal Form Of Sequencing? 151 -- Some History 153 -- Schegloff (2007) 156 -- Turn-taking, Gender, And Power 158 -- Recent Research 159 -- Our Research 160 -- A Perspective On Turn-taking 160 -- 17 Laughter 163 -- Chapter Prospectus 163 -- Science Times 163 -- Some History 164 -- Methodology 166 -- Psychological Approaches 167 -- Further Questions About Psychological Research 168 -- Conversation-analytic Research 170 -- Chafe (2007) 171 -- 18 Applause And Other Audience Reactions 175 -- Chapter Prospectus 175 -- Applause And Laughter: A Comparison 176 -- Some History Of Applause 177 -- Empirical Research On Applause To Political Oratory 178 -- Empirical Research On Laughter As An Audience Reaction 182 -- Empirical Research On Booing As An Audience Reaction 182 -- Audience-to-audience Responses 183 -- The Listener's Golden Opportunities 185 -- Some Comparisons Between Individual Listeners And Audiences 186 -- Part 4 Toward A Theory Of Spontaneous Spoken Discourse -- 19 Intersubjectivity 189 -- Chapter Prospectus 189 -- The Principle Of Intersubjectivity As A Problem In Literary Stylistics 189 -- A Psychological Concept Of Intersubjectivity 190 -- 20 Perspectivity 193 -- Chapter Prospectus 193 -- The Basic Concept Of Perspectivity 193 -- Mine And Thine 195 -- Dialogicality 196 -- Perspectivity And Intersubjectivity 198 -- 21 Open-endedness 201 -- Chapter Prospectus 201 -- The Concept Of Open-endedness 201 -- Spontaneity 202 -- A Methodological Problem 203 -- The Psychology Of Open-endedness 205 -- 22 Verbal Integrity 207 -- Chapter Prospectus 207 -- The Concept Of Verbal Integrity 208 -- The Authors' Preoccupation With Verbal Integrity 209 -- Verbal Integrity As An Essential Component Of Spontaneous Spoken Discourse 209 -- Ethics 212 -- 23 Spontaneous Spoken Discourse 213 -- Chapter Prospectus 213 -- Syntax 213 -- Beyond Sentential Syntax 215 -- Back To Psychology 217 -- A Theory 218 -- Throwaways 219 -- Splendid Isolation? 223 -- 24 Communicating In Print About Communicating Orally 225. By Daniel C. O'connell, Sabine Kowal. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 231-252) And Index. "A unique view of language studies throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries: where the mainstream emphasis has been, what has been missing, and what remedies are needed. In other words, this book is a call for a paradigm shift in the study of oral communication. It is a must read for people interested in language use, as well as for specialists in language studies." Camelia Suleiman, Ph.D., Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA "The authors have identified crucial theoretical and methodological assumptions that have hampered scholarship on language use. Their critical assessment is grounded in nuanced theoretical analysis and rigorous empirical studies. As a result, they reveal the complexity, elegance, and moral aspects of day to day dialogical communication." Kevin P. Weinfurt, Ph.D., Duke University, Durham, NC, USA In contrast to traditional approaches of mainstream psycholinguists, the authors of Communicating with One Another approach spontaneous spoken discourse as a dynamic process, rich with structures, patterns, and rules other than conventional grammar and syntax. Daniel C. O’Connell and Sabine Kowal thoroughly critique mainstream psycholinguistics, proposing instead a shift in theoretical focus from experimentation to field observation, from monologue to dialogue, and from the written to the spoken. They invoke four theoretical principles: intersubjectivity, perspectivity, open-endedness, and verbal integrity. Their analyses of historical and original research raise significant questions about the relationship between spoken and written discourse, particularly with regard to transcription and punctuation. With emphasis on political discourse, media interviews, and dramatic performance, the authors review both familiar and unexplored characteristics of spontaneous spoken communication, including: The speaker’s use of prosody. The functions of interjections. What fillers do for a living. Turn-taking: Smooth and otherwise. Laughter, applause, and booing: from individual listener to collective audience. Pauses, silence, and the art of listening. The paradigm shift proposed in Communicating with One Another will interest and provoke readers concerned about communicative language use – including psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and anthropological linguists. In contrast to traditional approaches of mainstream psycholinguists, the authors of Communicating with One Another approach spontaneous spoken discourse as a dynamic process, rich with structures, patterns, and rules other than conventional grammar and syntax. Daniel C. O'Connell and Sabine Kowal thoroughly critique mainstream psycholinguistics, proposing instead a shift in theoretical focus from experimentation to field observation, from monologue to dialogue, and from the written to the spoken. They invoke four theoretical principles: intersubjectivity, perspectivity, open-endedness, and verbal integrity. Their analyses of historical and original research raise significant questions about the relationship between spoken and written discourse, particularly with regard to transcription and punctuation. With emphasis on political discourse, media interviews, and dramatic performance, the authors review both familiar and unexplored characteristics of spontaneous spoken communication, including: (1) The speaker's use of prosody. (2) The functions of interjections. (3) What fillers do for a living. (4) Turn-taking: Smooth and otherwise. (5) Laughter, applause, and booing: from individual listener to collective audience. (6) Pauses, silence, and the art of listening. The paradigm shift proposed in Communicating with One Another will interest and provoke readers concerned about communicative language use – including psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and anthropological linguists. Front Matter....Pages 1-18 Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Problematic....Pages 1-10 Empirical Methods....Pages 1-14 Fluency and Hesitation....Pages 1-7 The Written....Pages 1-9 Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Rhetoric....Pages 1-10 Intentionality....Pages 1-5 From Monologism to Dialogicality....Pages 1-6 Listening....Pages 1-7 Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Punctuation....Pages 1-9 Transcription....Pages 1-9 Pauses....Pages 1-13 Prosody....Pages 1-8 Fillers....Pages 1-12 Interjections....Pages 1-9 Referring....Pages 1-6 Turn-taking....Pages 1-13 Laughter....Pages 1-11 Applause and Other Audience Reactions....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Intersubjectivity....Pages 1-4 Perspectivity....Pages 1-7 Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Open-endedness....Pages 1-5 Verbal Integrity....Pages 1-6 Spontaneous Spoken Discourse....Pages 1-12 Communicating in Print about Communicating Orally....Pages 1-5 Back Matter....Pages 1-35