DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONVERSATIONAL PERSPECTIVE-TAKING M. Schober Chapter 7

A brief Writing Exercise Please write a brief description (a paragraph or two) of what you see in this room.

To mentally step into the other’s shoes §4 Different Kinds of Perspective 4. As a speaker’s knowledge 1. As a speaker’s time, place and identity 2. As a speaker’s conceptualizations 3. As a speaker’s conversational agenda

Perspective-Taking as Time, Place and Identity §Deictic or indexical expressions depend on their occasions of use l terms like I and you are from a certain perspective on this occasion: Identity l Deictic expressions of time indicate the time the speaker is in: now, then, today, yesterday, next year

Deictic Expressions §Deictic expressions of place indicate a speaker’s physical location l terms like here, there, this, that, come, or go express the speaker’s situatedness in a particular location

Perspective as Conceptualization §The way in which the speaker characterizes the topic under discussion, as indicated by the linguistic form §Every choice of linguistic form indicates a take on the situation, event, object, or location it describes §and limits the set of possible interpretations

Speaker’s conceptualizations can be seen in: §The words they use §The propositions they use §And in their more extended discourse forms

At the Word Level: §Different words presuppose different ways of conceiving of their referents l “Boots” l “that awful cat” l “my pet” “the media” “those bloodsuckers” “the voice of the people”

Speakers’ Choices of Propositions §“Fred walked.” “Fred lifted his left foot while swinging his right arm, brought down his weight on his left foot, and then lifted his right foot.” Above we see two different perspectives on what Fred did.

Linearizing Spatial Information in Verbal Description (p. 149) For instance, speakers might describe their apartment by taking the hearer on a tour starting at the front door and going room to room. Or, they might describe the bedrooms, then the bathrooms, etc.

Metaphor-Level Conceptual Perspectives “I am really drawn to Phil” “There was real electricity between us” LOVE AS A PHYSICAL FORCE

ARGUMENT IS WAR Your claims are indefensible He attacked every weak point in my argument I demolished his argument He shot down all of my arguments

TIME IS MONEY You’re wasting my time. This gadget will save you hours. I don’t have the time to give you. How do you spend your time these days? Do you have much time left? Thank you for your time. Put aside some time for me.

PERSPECTIVE AS CONVERSATIONAL AGENDA The purposes behind utterances in conversations Small talk or serious talk To communicate in detail vs. generalities A serious invitation vs. platitude Speech Acts Performed (direct and indirect)

Perspective as Knowledge (& world views) People’s background beliefs, attitudes, values, opinions, cognitive styles, and thoughts This kind of perspective is a relatively stable feature of a person Perspective as Knowledge is closely linked to Perspective as Conceptualization

Perspective as Knowledge One takes another’s knowledge (world view) perspective when they consider the other’s group membership, character, and experiences When we tailor what we say for our audience, we take this perspective: speaking at the appropriate level of expertise

How Do We Infer Each Other’s Perspectives in Conversation? (p. 153) First, we need to take notice that we are talking about a process of inferring We infer from: the physical setting of the conversation the utterances the history of the conversation, previous utterances beliefs about the interactant’s group membership, expertise beliefs about the interactant’s unique experiences

Let’s look at a scene in a movie and see if we can find indications of how the characters take the other’s perspective Or, let’s try a political debate Or, an everyday conversation