{"id":117,"date":"2019-09-26T02:25:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T02:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/?p=117"},"modified":"2019-09-26T02:25:23","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T02:25:23","slug":"grounding-in-communication-reading-reflection-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/2019\/09\/26\/grounding-in-communication-reading-reflection-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Grounding in Communication: Reading Reflection #1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Before this paper by Herbert H. Clark and Susan E. Brennan, apparently the going theory was that people talk in the most efficient way possible &#8211; the principle of least effort, it was called.\u00a0 As if we plan out what we\u2019re going to say so we give <em>just enough<\/em> information in the least possible amount of time.\u00a0 Then these authors came along with the groundbreaking (I assume) principle of least <em>collaborative<\/em> effort.\u00a0 It\u2019s jarring to read the snippets of actual conversation that they provide, replete with \u201cuh\u201ds and false starts and interruptions.\u00a0 That\u2019s because of another aspect of communication that they talk about: we\u2019re not used to <em>reading<\/em> exchanges like these, because in <em>written<\/em> media, the presenter has time to self-repair.\u00a0 In writing, the way to achieve least collaborative effort is to be as clear and complete as possible, because the cost of \u201crepairing\u201d and \u201ctaking turns\u201d with your <em>reader<\/em> is high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reading this paper put me in mind of the artist Nathan Pyle\u2019s comics with aliens, satirizing the odd little things we humans do that we take for granted, like below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/flF9435wT0580oL6v8L9eHrwQRO4XoJ5DZcincXiisMNoHC_wtaJEr5cto5siaPwfnpO7rkqabmgRBfspKmLTdtUhp95EME5bO7twawA7oMENLxskTLwC_FQJphAisNgZHUx1QRO\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Server A forgets what customer B said and provides <em>negative evidence of understanding<\/em> to that effect, so A reassures B, and uses an <em>indicative gesture<\/em> to establish the <em>referent<\/em> (a waffle), and it doesn\u2019t stop there because both parties need to take one more turn to provide <em>positive evidence of understanding<\/em>.\u00a0 So many turns just to order a criss-cross flop disc!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This work was published in 1991.\u00a0 How much has changed since then!  The authors wouldn\u2019t have known the wonders of AOL Instant Messenger, or Facebook, or GIFs.\u00a0 I wonder what they would think about the relatively recent developments of \u201creceipts\u201d (I\u2019m not sure what the term is &#8211; the icon that shows someone has read your IM), or the dot-dot-dots that indicate your interlocutor is typing back.\u00a0 Both show that your interlocutor \u201c<em>noticed that you [wrote] something<\/em>,\u201d so they\u2019re in at least State 1 (State 0 being \u201cB didn\u2019t notice that A uttered [anything]\u201d).\u00a0 Whether they read the whole thing or correctly heard you is still uncertain.  What kind of grounding profile do we have then?\u00a0 Of course it also depends on the purpose of the IMs &#8211; are you messaging your crush to arrange a date, or your reluctant lab partner to ask them to step up, or your boss to say you\u2019re taking a sick day tomorrow? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before this paper by Herbert H. Clark and Susan E. Brennan, apparently the going theory was that people talk in the most efficient way possible &#8211; the principle of least effort, it was called.\u00a0 As if we plan out what we\u2019re going to say so we give just enough information in the least possible amount&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/cscw2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}