Better late than Now-or-Never: The case of interactive repair phenomena

Abstract

Empirical evidence from dialogue, both corpus and experimental, highlights the importance of interaction in language use - and this raises some questions for Christiansen & Chater's (C&C's) proposals. We endorse C&C's call for an integrated framework but argue that their emphasis on local, individual production and comprehension makes it difficult to accommodate the ubiquitous, interactive, and defeasible processes of clarification and repair in conversation.