Computational Models of Discourse Analysis Carolyn Penstein Rosé Language Technologies Institute/ Human-Computer Interaction Institute

Warm Up Discussion What does the usage of time in the story tell you about:  The projected reader  How the author feels about the choices she has made? Were there turning points? How do you know? What connection do you see between the narrative and the author’s identity? Frame of reference: where do you find “I”, “You”, “Here”, “Now”…

From last time: Controversy over the nature of identity Identity is a function of social categories like gender, ethnicity, etc. Identity is highly individual and constructed in the moment Makes sense to study with a quantitative methodology Makes sense to study with a constructivist/ qualiataive methodology Variationist sociolinguistics Interactional Sociolingusitics * Remember that your methodology reflects your assumptions about the nature of what you are studying. Why do you think this contrast keeps coming up in this class?

Announcement

Student Comment It is very intriguing to see the still reigning confusion between story and narrative even by researchers who predominantly write on the subject. By narrative we mean nothing more than a sequence of events. For example: a person went somewhere and did something. That could be thought of as a set of two events. Narrative includes the notion of ordering but not causality, which is the realm of plot. So it is important that the person went somewhere first and then did something but the two do not necessarily influence each other. As consumers of stories we in fact only consume the narrative of a work. Narrative is the symbolic language of story, it is that which makes it go. Readers and viewers experience a fictional world and events through narrative, but fictional characters do exactly the same. The way in which fictional characters experience narrative is what we call story.

Plot, Narrative, and Story

Student Comment Hopefully the definitions above clear up the confusion the author of the paper on the double arrow of time has. None of the cited researchers argue that we can experience narrative out of order. The only thing they argue is that the reality of the ordering can't be changed. It is even important that this can't be changed because we could not discern any exploration of alternative ordering. For example, we can't detect the presence of a flashback if there is not something that came before. It appears, but I could be wrong, that the author of the paper confuses the fixed order of events in reality with the experienced or perceived order of those events.

What is the distinction between the proposed model of narrative and the clock time/causal model? Do you see re-presentation or re-storying?

Connection with causality….

Connection with our story?

Comparison with blog discussion… Themes Age related cues Gender related cues Who is the projected reader? Did you notice anything with respect to inscribed versus invoked sentiment?

Impression Management “Whereas some information is given intentionally (i.e., communicated by the speaker), other information is given off (i.e., expressed) unintentionally” (Goffman, 1959) What details about a person’s communication give us an impression?

What is the implication for machine learning? Identity is a function of social categories like gender, ethnicity, etc. Identity is highly individual and constructed in the moment Makes sense to study with a quantitative methodology Makes sense to study with a constructivist/ qualiataive methodology Variationist sociolinguistics Interactional Sociolingusitics * Remember that your methodology reflects your assumptions about the nature of what you are studying.

Questions?