Course title
Using language
Teacher
Herbert H. Clark
E-mail:
clark@stanford.edu
Postal
Address:
Building 420, Jordan Hall
Stanford University
Stanford CA 49305-2130 U.S.A.
Homepage:
www.psychology.stanford.edu/~herb/
Intermediate
In everyday affairs, people communicate with each
other in order to carry out social, or joint, activities. People talk as a
means of working together, playing games, gossiping, arguing, and transacting
business. But communication, as in dialogues, is itself a joint activity in
which people have to coordinate on who speaks when and about what. In this
course, we will focus on several issues. How do people use dialogue in carrying
out practical joint activities? How do people coordinate with each other on the
dialogue itself? Communication relies on a range of signaling devices in
addition to speech, including pointing gestures, iconic gestures,
demonstrations, placement, and orientation. What are the basic methods of
signaling in dialogue, and how do they get combined?
Wednesday:
How
people coordinate on speaking and listening
Thursday:
Methods
of signaling, modes of thinking
Friday:
Material
communication
Course
readings:
Lecture 1: Why people use language
Clark, H. H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: Chapter 1
Clark, H. H. (2006). Social
actions, social commitments. In S. C. Levinson & N. J. Enfield (Eds.) Roots of human
sociality: Culture, cognition, and human interaction. Oxford: Berg Press.
Lecture 2: Doing things with language
Clark, H. H. (1996). Using language.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: Chapters 5, 7
Lecture 3: Coordinating speaking and listening
Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G., & Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language, 53, 361–382.
Clark, H. H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: Chapter 8
Clark, H. H. & Krych, M. A. (2004). Speaking while monitoring addressees
for understanding. Journal of Memory and Language, 50(1),
62-81.
Lecture 4: Methods of signaling, modes of thinking
Clark, H. H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: Chapter 6
Clark, H. H., & Gerrig, R. J. (1990). Quotations as demonstrations. Language, 66,
764-805.
Lecture 5: Material communication
Clark, H. H. (2003). Pointing and placing. In S. Kita (Ed.), Pointing. Where language, culture, and cognition meet (pp. 243-268). Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.
Clark, H. H. (2005). Coordinating with each other in a material world. Discourse Studies, 7(4–5), 507–525.
Goodwin, C. (2003). Pointing as situated practice. In S. Kita (Ed.), Pointing. Where language, culture, and cognition meet. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.