HCC class lecture 27 comments John Canny 5/2/05

Administrivia

Symbolic Interactionism Based on ideas by Goffman and Herbert Blumer.Blumer Studies the way people act and speak in particular situations. Treats humans as “pragmatic actors,” who act improvisationally in response to other actors. Builds on ideas of “role-playing” from Goffman’s earlier work. Based on pragmatic perspectives, primarily Dewey’s. Leads into “ethnomethodology,” another popular influence in HCI work (mostly PARC).

Everyday life We negotiate the arrangements under which we live, but once negotiated, we tend to follow them mechanically. Borrowing from William James he argued that there are “alternate worlds” that we live in: – –The world of the senses – –The world of scientific truths – –The world of myths and the supernatural – –The world of madmen

Everyday life By following the rules accepted for these worlds, we recreate them in our actions. A game such as chess or Everquest has clear rules that define an easy-to-inhabit world. In everyday life though, there are no universally- accepted rules, and we have to negotiate them with each stranger.

Frame analysis Each situation in fact may have its own rules. So frame analysis starts with the question: “What is going on here?”

Strips Fragments of everyday life, or their imitation. The idea of imitation is very important, since following James, the idea of “the real” is problematic. We acknowledge shared notions of “real activity,” and use them to discuss our other “modes” of being (imitating, parodying, distancing, writing, motivating…)

Speech Acts An idea from John Austin. We don’t simply speak, we speak with a purpose. And there are relatively few purposes (six!) considered by speech act theory. The main ones are: Constatives: affirming, alleging, announcing, answering, attributing, claiming,.. Directives: advising, admonishing, asking, begging,.. Commissives: agreeing, guaranteeing, inviting, offering, promising, swearing, volunteering Acknowledgments: apologizing, condoling, congratulating, greeting, thanking, accepting,..

Keying Even the speech act meaning of an utterance may not be clear on first hearing. We may need to “replay” the utterance before we determine the meaning. E.g. “It’s hot in here” appears at first to be constative, but is often a directive: “please open the window.” Its not easy to sound sane. There are so many implicit conditions that need to be followed that any major distortions lead us to suspect the speaker’s sanity.

Keying Even the speech act meaning of an utterance may not be clear on first hearing. We may need to “replay” the utterance before we determine the meaning. E.g. “It’s hot in here” appears at first to be constative, but is often a directive: “please open the window.” Its not easy to sound sane. There are so many implicit conditions that need to be followed that any major distortions lead us to suspect the speaker’s sanity.

Discourse “rules” with strangers Social discourse is a complex process. Goffman gives some typical rules for engaging strangers without preamble. A more typical entrée is the “summons” (excuse me…). Acceptable subjects are “requests for free goods” (directions, time of day etc.).

Discourse rules with acquaintances We maintain knowledge of “other peoples’ others”. Making inquiries after those people with a suitable tone of familiarity is expected. Similarly, keeping close acquaintances informed about any important changes in our own life is expected. The closer the acquaintance, the more detail and the more regularly they should be updated.

Discourse rules with spouses Rich context allows great economy “I think they had a good time” There is both a cognitive frame (facts about the previous dinner) and a social one (that it is OK to make this utterance without preface). Prosody helps determine whether the utterance is a unit, or part of longer dialogue.

Discussion Topics T1: Think about the keying process in typical dialogue. What kinds of speech cause complex keying to happen? Under what circumstances do we create those utterances? T2: What aspects of frames might be visible to a computer system? How much would need to be programmed in, and how much might be learned?