LEXICAL ENTRAINMENT IN SPONTANEOUS DIALOG
Susan E. Brennan · 1996
It is often desirable to predict or constrain the lexical choices people make with spoken language systems. I discuss lexical variability in language use; while there is a great deal of variability across conversations, there is little within. In conversation, people achieve conceptual pacts, or shared conceptualizations, which they mark by using the same terms; this process of lexical entrainment limits and systematizes lexical variability (Brennan & Clark, 1996). In text and speech dialogs with computer systems, people often adopt the systems' terms; this process shares some aspects in common with lexical entrainment, and it differs in some ways as well. After summarizing five experiments on lexical variability with human partners and computers, I present some implications of this work for spoken language systems.