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Universal Principles in the Repair of Communication Problems - PubMed

  • ️Thu Jan 01 2015

. 2015 Sep 16;10(9):e0136100.

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136100. eCollection 2015.

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Universal Principles in the Repair of Communication Problems

Mark Dingemanse et al. PLoS One. 2015.

Abstract

There would be little adaptive value in a complex communication system like human language if there were no ways to detect and correct problems. A systematic comparison of conversation in a broad sample of the world's languages reveals a universal system for the real-time resolution of frequent breakdowns in communication. In a sample of 12 languages of 8 language families of varied typological profiles we find a system of 'other-initiated repair', where the recipient of an unclear message can signal trouble and the sender can repair the original message. We find that this system is frequently used (on average about once per 1.4 minutes in any language), and that it has detailed common properties, contrary to assumptions of radical cultural variation. Unrelated languages share the same three functionally distinct types of repair initiator for signalling problems and use them in the same kinds of contexts. People prefer to choose the type that is the most specific possible, a principle that minimizes cost both for the sender being asked to fix the problem and for the dyad as a social unit. Disruption to the conversation is kept to a minimum, with the two-utterance repair sequence being on average no longer that the single utterance which is being fixed. The findings, controlled for historical relationships, situation types and other dependencies, reveal the fundamentally cooperative nature of human communication and offer support for the pragmatic universals hypothesis: while languages may vary in the organization of grammar and meaning, key systems of language use may be largely similar across cultural groups. They also provide a fresh perspective on controversies about the core properties of language, by revealing a common infrastructure for social interaction which may be the universal bedrock upon which linguistic diversity rests.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Elements of other-initiated repair.

Repair sequences consist of a

repair initiator

that points back to a prior turn (

trouble source

) and points forward to a next turn (

repair solution

) [3].

Fig 2
Fig 2. The frequency of repair.

Empirical density curve showing the proportion of independent repair initiations encountered after a given amount of time has elapsed since the last one. The vast majority of repair initiations happen within 5 minutes of each other.

Fig 3
Fig 3. The probability of Open repair initiators in different conditions.

Model estimates of the probability of Open repair initiator in reference condition (grey) versus when all three measures of trouble-prone contexts are true (black). In the latter case, probability of an Open repair initiator approaches 1 in all of the languages.

Fig 4
Fig 4. Conservation principle.

Density plot of actual conservation ratios of each case in the data set (black line), with an average near 1:1; and of conservation ratios from a permutation test using randomly chosen trouble source turns (grey line), with an average of 1:1.7, closer to a null hypothesis for conservation (simulation and further explanation in S4 Text). On average, the length of the two-turn repair sequence matches the length of the trouble source turn.

Fig 5
Fig 5. Division of labour in repair sequences.

Estimated average relative costs paid by B (left of mark) and A (right of mark) for different repair initiator types are similar in each language. B pays more of the cost as repair initiators become more specific.

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Grants and funding

This research was supported by ERC projects HSSLU (240853, to NJE) and INTERACT (269484, to SCL) and by the Max Planck Gesellschaft.

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