Cross-modal reduction: Repetition of words and gestures

This dissertation examines speakers’ production of speech and representational gesture. It utilizes the Repetition Effect as the investigative tool. The Repetition Effect appears to vary by the tendency for some items to shorten when repeating, at least under the condition that speakers can primarily operate by their assumption of the state of knowledge of the listener. In speech, a highly conventionalized form of performance, word duration reduces within the same stretch of coherent discourse; then, it resets in the first mention of a new stretch of coherent discourse regardless of the state of knowledge to the speaker or the listener. Therefore, the Repetition Effect in speech is best analyzed as an automatic behavior triggered by discourse structure, rather than reflecting online changes in word accessibility for either interlocutor, be it for the speaker (Listener-neutral explanation) or for the listener (Listener-modeling explanation). The Repetition Effect in speech production in this dissertation will be accounted for within an exemplar model of the perception/production loop. However, in representational gestures, a much less conventionalized form of performance compared to speech, the Repetition Effect shows a different pattern. When speakers only operate by their assumption of the state of knowledge of the listener, without dynamic, appreciable listener feedback, they steadily reduce most types of representational gesture across tellings. Based on these results, it can be argued that representational gestures primarily serve as a part of speech production, rather than as communicative acts. That is, they are produced without regard to the novelty of the information to the listener, thus, consistent with the Listener-neutral explanation

Topics in Action Sources of Definiteness of Topic Noun Phrases in Thai Interactive Discourse

The notion of topic has been widely discussed in past literature; however, the use of naturally occurring data in these studies, especially in Thai, has been lacking. This study approaches topic from a functionalist standpoint. It uses definiteness, a feature of topics generally agreed upon by scholars, to investigate topic noun phrases (NPs) in the topic with a clausal comment constructionin naturally occurring data in Thai. The main objectives are to identify the sources of definiteness of topic NPs and demonstrate their functions. The data for this study was obtained from the Chulalongkorn University Linguistics Department corpus which partly consists of interactive conversations from a popular traffic radio show, Jor Sor 100, aired in Bangkok, Thailand. Seventy-seven topic NPs selected for this analysis appear in the form of [[NP] topic [NP subject - V / A predicate] comment], and they are marked with the particle /nîi/, a topic marker which derives from a demonstrative. The results show that topic NPs in this study are definite, but their sources of definiteness vary. The majority of these topics are definite through shared background knowledge. Many of these topic NPs are culturally-dependent and reflect the aboutness quality. Others appear as time phrases and reflect a frame setting quality. Additionally, there are tokens of topic NPs that are definite through prior mention. In these uses, speakers of Thai refer back to previously mentioned referents in the form of a topic NP, then more information is added or elaborated in the clausal comment. Hence, these topic NPs reflect the aboutness quality. This study indicates that topic NPs in one language, one construction, one type of register, and marked with one particle, have multiple functions. As a result, topic should not be treated as a unified category within a language or, more importantly, across languages. Topic is neither a single notion nor\u27has a single function