ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates principles of perception and interpretation of conversational data, drawing upon methods of conversation analysis. One of the principal skills which a listener must have to participate in conversation is the ability to identify a salient topic. In summary timing of listener response itself is an aspect of listener performance that can reveal the listener's orientation to, and understanding of, the talk at hand. Here the listeners provide continuous verbal and semi-verbal 'listenership cues', and presumably also appropriate non-verbal cues as culturally appropriate. Reformulation can be based on cooperative or conflicting intentions of the listeners. The notion of ceremonial communication suggests that specific stylistic rules underlie the interpretation of the discourse in a specific community. They claimed the informative intent of their utterances was misinterpreted. Coordination of intent, or mutual acceptance of the other party's intent, is vital in collaborative discourse.
