The dynamics of discourse situations
The update effects of utterances such as cue phrases and
keep-turn markers cannot be characterized as changes to a
shared record of the propositions under discussion. The
meaning of these utterances is formalized most naturally
in terms of a speech-act based theory of the common
ground; but the problem with such theories is that none of
them includes a clear account of how discourse referents
are made accessible. We consider three hypotheses about
the dynamics of a speech act-based theory of the
conversational score, and examine the implications of
these hypotheses.
Massimo Poesio and Reinhard Muskens