Article published In:
Language as Social Coordination: An evolutionary perspectiveEdited by Joanna Raczaszek-Leonardi and Stephen J. Cowley
[Interaction Studies 13:1] 2012
► pp. 103–124
Edited by Joanna Raczaszek-Leonardi and Stephen J. Cowley
[Interaction Studies 13:1] 2012
► pp. 103–124
Carving language for social coordination
A dynamical approach
Human social coordination is often mediated by language. Through verbal dialogue, people direct each other’s attention to properties of their shared environment, they discuss how to jointly solve problems, share their introspections, and distribute roles and assignments. In this article, we propose a dynamical framework for the study of the coordinative role of language. Based on a review of a number of recent experimental studies, we argue that shared symbolic patterns emerge and stabilize through a process of local reciprocal linguistic alignment. Such patterns in turn come to facilitate and refine social coordination by enabling the alignment, joint construction and navigation of conceptual models and actions. Implications of the framework are illustrated and discussed in relation to a case study where dyads of interlocutors interact verbally to reach joint decisions in a perceptual discrimination task. Keywords: social coordination; language; communication; linguistic alignment; symbolic patterns; affordances; emergence; evolution; adaptivity; interaction
Cited by
Cited by 56 other publications
Abney, Drew H., Rick Dale, Jeff Yoshimi, Chris T. Kello, Kristian Tylén & Riccardo Fusaroli
2014. Joint perceptual decision-making: a case study in explanatory pluralism. Frontiers in Psychology 5 
Alviar, Camila, Christopher T. Kello & Rick Dale
2023. Multimodal coordination and pragmatic modes in conversation. Language Sciences 97 ► pp. 101524 ff.
Barcena, Elena, Timothy Read & Beatriz Sedano
2020. An Approximation to Inclusive Language in LMOOCs Based on Appraisal Theory. Open Linguistics 6:1 ► pp. 38 ff.
Begemann, Vanessa, Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock & Maie Stein
2023. Peeling Away the Layers of Workplace Gossip: A Framework, Review, and Future Research Agenda to Study Workplace Gossip as a Dynamic and Complex Behavior. Merits 3:2 ► pp. 297 ff.
Bernárdez, Enrique
2019. Some theoretical Prerequisites for the Integrated Study of Linguistic “Macrochange”. In Complexity Applications in Language and Communication Sciences, ► pp. 93 ff.
Berán, Eszter & Zsolt Unoka
2018. Élettörténetek konstrukciója a pszichoterápiában: A terápiás ülésen megvalósuló narratív interakció vizsgálata. Magyar Pszichológiai Szemle 73:1 ► pp. 43 ff.
Bietti, Lucas M. & John Sutton
2015. Interacting to remember at multiple timescales. Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 16:3 ► pp. 419 ff.
Christensen, Peer, Riccardo Fusaroli & Kristian Tylén
2016. Environmental constraints shaping constituent order in emerging communication systems: Structural iconicity, interactive alignment and conventionalization. Cognition 146 ► pp. 67 ff.
Cowley, Stephen J.
2014. Human Language and Sensorimotor Contingency. In Contemporary Sensorimotor Theory [Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, 15], ► pp. 235 ff.
Cowley, Stephen J. & Sune Vork Steffensen
2015. Coordination in language. Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 16:3 ► pp. 474 ff.
Cuffari, Elena Clare
2014. On Being Mindful about Misunderstandings in Languaging: Making Sense of Non-Sense as the Way to Sharing Linguistic Meaning. In Enactive Cognition at the Edge of Sense-Making, ► pp. 207 ff.
Dale, Rick, Riccardo Fusaroli, Nicholas D. Duran & Daniel C. Richardson
2013. The Self-Organization of Human Interaction [Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 59], ► pp. 43 ff.
Dideriksen, Christina, Morten H. Christiansen, Mark Dingemanse, Malte Højmark‐Bertelsen, Christer Johansson, Kristian Tylén & Riccardo Fusaroli
2023. Language‐Specific Constraints on Conversation: Evidence from Danish and Norwegian. Cognitive Science 47:11
Fusaroli, R. & K. Tylén
2014. Linguistic coordination: Models, dynamics and effects. New Ideas in Psychology 32 ► pp. 115 ff.
Fusaroli, Riccardo, Bahador Bahrami, Karsten Olsen, Andreas Roepstorff, Geraint Rees, Chris Frith & Kristian Tylén
2012. Coming to Terms. Psychological Science 23:8 ► pp. 931 ff.
Fusaroli, Riccardo, Nivedita Gangopadhyay & Kristian Tylén
2014. The dialogically extended mind: Language as skilful intersubjective engagement. Cognitive Systems Research 29-30 ► pp. 31 ff.
Fusaroli, Riccardo, Ivana Konvalinka & Sebastian Wallot
2014. Analyzing Social Interactions: The Promises and Challenges of Using Cross Recurrence Quantification Analysis. In Translational Recurrences [Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics, 103], ► pp. 137 ff.
Fusaroli, Riccardo, Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi & Kristian Tylén
2014. Dialog as interpersonal synergy. New Ideas in Psychology 32 ► pp. 147 ff.
Fusaroli, Riccardo & Kristian Tylén
2016. Investigating Conversational Dynamics: Interactive Alignment, Interpersonal Synergy, and Collective Task Performance. Cognitive Science 40:1 ► pp. 145 ff.
Fusaroli, Riccardo, Ethan Weed, Roberta Rocca, Deborah Fein & Letitia Naigles
2023. Repeat After Me? Both Children With and Without Autism Commonly Align Their Language With That of Their Caregivers. Cognitive Science 47:11
Gironzetti, Elisa, Lucy Pickering, Meichan Huang, Ying Zhang, Shigehito Menjo & Salvatore Attardo
2016. Smiling synchronicity and gaze patterns in dyadic humorous conversations. HUMOR 29:2
Greenman, Andrew & Jeannie Holstein
2024. Dialogue and the micro-processes of founder meaning-making during growth. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship 42:2 ► pp. 185 ff.
Hessels, Roy S.
2020. How does gaze to faces support face-to-face interaction? A review and perspective. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 27:5 ► pp. 856 ff.
Hodges, Bert H. & Carol A. Fowler
2015. Cooperativity and Selectivity in Conversation. Ecological Psychology 27:4 ► pp. 279 ff.
Kiverstein, Julian & Erik Rietveld
2021. Skilled we-intentionality: Situating joint action in the living environment. Open Research Europe 1 ► pp. 54 ff.
Kiverstein, Julian & Erik Rietveld
2021. Skilled we-intentionality: Situating joint action in the living environment. Open Research Europe 1 ► pp. 54 ff.
Lantz-Andersson, Annika
2018. Language play in a second language: Social media as contexts for emerging Sociopragmatic competence. Education and Information Technologies 23:2 ► pp. 705 ff.
Mazzocconi, Chiara
2022. Laughter Meaning Construction and Use in Development: Children and Spoken Dialogue Systems. In HCI International 2022 - Late Breaking Papers. Multimodality in Advanced Interaction Environments [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 13519], ► pp. 113 ff.
Mazzocconi, Chiara & Jonathan Ginzburg
2022. A Longitudinal Characterization of Typical Laughter Development in Mother–Child Interaction from 12 to 36 Months: Formal Features and Reciprocal Responsiveness. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 46:4 ► pp. 327 ff.
Michael, John, Kathleen Bogart, Kristian Tylén, Joel Krueger, Morten Bech, John Rosendahl Østergaard & Riccardo Fusaroli
2015. Training in Compensatory Strategies Enhances Rapport in Interactions Involving People with Möbius Syndrome. Frontiers in Neurology 6
Nölle, Jonas, Riccardo Fusaroli, Gregory J. Mills & Kristian Tylén
2020. Language as shaped by the environment: linguistic construal in a collaborative spatial task. Palgrave Communications 6:1
Priego-Valverde, Béatrice, Brigitte Bigi, Salvatore Attardo, Lucy Pickering & Elisa Gironzetti
2018. Is smiling during humor so obvious? A cross-cultural comparison of smiling behavior in humorous sequences in American English and French interactions. Intercultural Pragmatics 15:4 ► pp. 563 ff.
PÕLDVERE, NELE, VICTORIA JOHANSSON & CARITA PARADIS
2021. Resonance in dialogue: the interplay between intersubjective motivations and cognitive facilitation. Language and Cognition 13:4 ► pp. 643 ff.
Raczaszek-Leonardi, Joanna, Iris Nomikou & Katharina J. Rohlfing
2013. Young Children’s Dialogical Actions: The Beginnings of Purposeful Intersubjectivity. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 5:3 ► pp. 210 ff.
Raviv, Limor, Antje Meyer & Shiri Lev-Ari
2019. Larger communities create more systematic languages. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 286:1907 ► pp. 20191262 ff.
Rączaszek-Leonardi, Joanna
2012. Language as a System of Replicable Constraints. In LAWS, LANGUAGE and LIFE [Biosemiotics, 7], ► pp. 295 ff.
Schmidt, R. C., Lin Nie, Alison Franco & Michael J. Richardson
2014. Bodily synchronization underlying joke telling. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8
Shen, Jocelyn, Ying Li, Javaria Hassan, Sharifa Alghowinem, Hae Won Park, Cynthia Breazeal & Rosalind Picard
2023. 2023 11th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction Workshops and Demos (ACIIW), ► pp. 1 ff.
Steffensen, Sune Vork
2015. Distributed Language and Dialogism: notes on non-locality, sense-making and interactivity. Language Sciences 50 ► pp. 105 ff.
Stevanovic, Melisa & Tommi Himberg
2021. Movement synchrony as a topic of empirical social interaction research. In Intersubjectivity in Action [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 326], ► pp. 329 ff.
Stevanovic, Melisa, Tommi Himberg, Maija Niinisalo, Mikko Kahri, Anssi Peräkylä, Mikko Sams & Riitta Hari
2017. Sequentiality, Mutual Visibility, and Behavioral Matching: Body Sway and Pitch Register During Joint Decision Making. Research on Language and Social Interaction 50:1 ► pp. 33 ff.
Stolk, Arjen, Lennart Verhagen & Ivan Toni
2016. Conceptual Alignment: How Brains Achieve Mutual Understanding. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20:3 ► pp. 180 ff.
Tison, Remi
2022. The fanciest sort of intentionality: Active inference, mindshaping and linguistic content. Philosophical Psychology ► pp. 1 ff.
Tison, Rémi & Pierre Poirier
2021. Active Inference and Cooperative Communication: An Ecological Alternative to the Alignment View. Frontiers in Psychology 12
Tolins, Jackson, Charlotte Zeamer & Jean E. Fox Tree
2018. Overhearing Dialogues and Monologues: How Does Entrainment Lead to More Comprehensible Referring Expressions?. Discourse Processes 55:7 ► pp. 545 ff.
Trasmundi, Sarah Bro & Sune Vork Steffensen
2016. Meaning Emergence in the Ecology of Dialogical Systems. Psychology of Language and Communication 20:2 ► pp. 154 ff.
Tylén, Kristian, Riccardo Fusaroli, Johanne Stege Bjørndahl, Joanna Raczaszek-Leonardi, Svend Østergaard & Frederik Stjernfelt
Verhoef, Tessa, Tyler Marghetis, Esther Walker & Seana Coulson
2024. Brain responses to a lab-evolved artificial language with space-time metaphors. Cognition 246 ► pp. 105763 ff.
Vesper, Cordula
2021. Interpersonale Koordination. In Bewegung, Training, Leistung und Gesundheit, ► pp. 1 ff.
Vesper, Cordula
2023. Interpersonale Koordination. In Bewegung, Training, Leistung und Gesundheit, ► pp. 377 ff.
Vial, Iván & Carlos Cornejo
2022. Not complex enough for complexity: Some intricacies of interpersonal synergies theory. New Ideas in Psychology 64 ► pp. 100914 ff.
Vinson, David W., Rick Dale, Maryam Tabatabaeian & Nicholas D. Duran
2015. Seeing and Believing: Social Influences on Language Processing. In Attention and Vision in Language Processing, ► pp. 197 ff.
Zackrison, Eric J., David R. Seibold & Ronald E. Rice
2015. Organizational Coordination and Communication: A Critical Review and Integrative Model. Annals of the International Communication Association 39:1 ► pp. 195 ff.
Zhao, Xia, Rong Shen & Xincheng Zhao
2020. A Cognitive-Semiotic Construal of Metaphor in Discourse. Chinese Semiotic Studies 16:1 ► pp. 119 ff.
Zheng, Dongping & Kristi Newgarden
2017. Dialogicality, Ecology, and Learning in Online Game Worlds. In Language, Education and Technology, ► pp. 345 ff.
Zlatev, Jordan
2015. Cognitive Semiotics. In International Handbook of Semiotics, ► pp. 1043 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.