Ferreira talks on May 1

Victor Ferreira (UC, San Diego) will talk on Wednesday 5/1, at 12:00-1:15 in Tobin 521B. A title and abstract of his talk follows

How do speakers' choices bring about successful communication?

Every produced utterance requires a speaker to make a cascade of choices: what words to use, what information to mention, what way to assemble a sentence. What principles guide such choices so as to allow successful communication? Explanations often default to the need to cater to listeners: Use words, include information, or assemble sentences per your listener's needs. In this talk, l describe research from my lab that points to a different principle: Speakers' choices are made to cater to speakers' needs. This fits with a broader division of labor for communicative success, whereby speakers work to speak efficiently, listeners work to understand speakers, and grammars constrain everyone so that everything works out.