Utterance Interpretation and the Role of the Analyst

Abstract

This paper is addressed to analysts of speech in social scenes and asks for a theory of utterance interpretation that incorporates the listener's point of view. By comparing the analyses of two professional linguists with those of naive "eavesdropper" judges, a framework for inferencing is suggested. This framework is based upon an examination of the ways in which lay-persons and analysts make inferences about the talk of others. Particular consideration is given to the functional significance of prosodic and paralinguistic features. Discussion centres upon explaining variations in judgments that were discovered to exist across and within "eavesdropper" judges and analysts. The need to account for such differences is considered as paramount since analysts ought to provide a framework for inferencing that goes beyond their own subjective platforms. It is also considered to be paramount because in the absence of an adequate conceptualization, analysts always run the risk of either simplifying or falsifying the data. In order to avoid such a risk, we argue, in conclusion, for a sociolinguistics which includes listener effect and listener variability as important elements in any interpretative work or interpretative theory that involves the analysis of utterances taken from everyday verbal exchange.