Introduction

Alignment in Communication is the theme of a novel direction in communication research, which focuses on interactive adaptation processes assumed to be more or less automatic in humans. Originating from an international workshop organized at Bielefeld’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), the book presents cornerstones of a forming new theory of communication, the ultimate purpose of which is to extend our knowledge about cognitive processes in human communication, as well as creating a foundation for natural multimodal dialogue in human-machine interaction. The introduction chapter, in addition to giving a brief overview of the content of the book, provides a definition of alignment in communication, justifies the need for this new perspective, and outlines a general framework for alignment research.