Reactive Redundancy and Listener Comprehension in Direction-Giving

Abstract

We explore the role of redundancy, both in anticipation of and in response to listener confusion, in task-oriented dialogue. We find that direction-givers provide redundant utterances in response to both verbal and non-verbal signals of listener confusion. We also examine the effects of prior acquaintance and visibility upon redundancy. As expected, givers use more redundant utterances overall, and more redundant utterances in response to listener questions, when communicating with strangers. We discuss our findings in relation to theories of redundancy, the balance of speaker and listener effort, and potential applications.