RUI: Interpersonal Underpinnings of Language Use

这项研究的目的是增加对语言产生和理解的社会心理基础的理解。这项研究的一个主要焦点将是会话间接性。人们经常间接地传达自己的意思，这一现象对认知心理学和社会心理学都有重要的影响。以前大多数关于间接的研究都考察了请求，这是一种相对独特的评论类型。本提案将通过考察作为答复的话语的产生和理解来扩展这项研究。将进行几个实验，以检查六个一般问题。首先，发言者如何间接回应问题和请求？第二，间接回复是如何解释的，人际语境在这一过程中起到了什么作用？第三，对间接回答的理解是否涉及一个推理过程，或者这些评论是以相对自动的方式被识别的？第四，副语言线索如回答迟疑在间接回答的理解中起到了什么作用？第五，听者会根据说话者的言论做出其他推断吗？如果是的话，他们是如何做的？第六，人们对他人言论的理解方式是否有所不同？这项研究将为人际关系以及语言在人们如何理解和互动中的独特作用提供新的线索。

The goal of the proposed research is to increase understanding of the social psychological underpinnings of language production and comprehension. A major focus of this research will be on conversational indirectness. People frequently convey their meaning indirectly, and the phenomenon has important implications for both cognitive psychology and social psychology. Most previous research on indirectness has examined requests, a relatively unique type of remark. The present proposal will extend this research by examining the production and comprehension of utterances that function as replies. Several experiments will be conducted to examine six general issues. First, how can speakers respond indirectly to questions and requests? Second, how are indirect replies interpreted, and what role does the interpersonal context play in this process? Third, does the comprehension of indirect replies involve an inference process, or are these remarks recognized in a relatively automatic fashion? Fourth, what is the role played by paralinguistic cues such as response hesitation in the comprehension of indirect replies? Fifth, do hearers make any other inferences as a function of a speaker's remarks, and if so how do they do so? Sixth, do people differ in terms of how they comprehend the meaning of others' remarks? The research will shed new light on interpersonal relationships, and the unique role of language in how people understand and interact with one another.