LINGUIST List 6.216

Tue 14 Feb 1995

Sum: Conversation over noisy channels, Didactics of linguistics

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , Sum: conversation over noisy channels
2. Lars Anders Kulbrandstad, +0100

Summary of my query of early January:

)Dear all,
)
)I study certain discourse level aspects of human-computer interaction. A
)parallel that recently has occurred to me is studying human-human
)interaction over noisy channels -- which components of the dialog are
)sacrificed earlier than others, and which ones are retained until the
)channel deteriorates too far to be useful at all.
)
)I prefer not to try to elaborate on what I mean by 'component', 'channel',
)and 'noisy'. I hope someone has thought more about these things than I
)have.
)
)Do you know of studies or other material on this sort of thing?
)
)J
Thanks to all who responded:

Jane A. Edwards, Alla B. Eskina, John Gilbert, D.A. Good, Dan Melamed,
Kripa Sundar, Karen Ward

Several responses recommended works in information theory:

"For information theory approach to communication, the following is a
classic and influential work, published in 3 editions from 1957-1980:
 Cherry, Colin.
 On human communication: a review, a survey, and a criticism. [Cambridge]
 Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology [1957].
 Series title: Studies in communication."

and the newer:

Cover & Thomas, _Elements of information theory_, 1990.

Additionally:

"A book by D.Rutter entitled "Looking and Seeing" examines what happens as you
progressively restrict the number of cues available to participants in
any form of dialogue."

And I was suggested air traffic control as a domain:

"ATC is, of course, a safety-critical activity carried out
over variable, noisy radio channels. You may find indirect evidence in
considering the FAA-approved terminology, which was designed to
miminize confusability over noisy channels."

and while I have not had time to look further into the area, it seems like
a good idea. Several responses noted the similarity between noise and
other restrictions on modality of commmunication, such as communciation
 -- like this -- over a computer channel.

hope these are of any use.

J

Jussi Karlgren, fil. lic. Jussi.Karlgrensics.se
Sw Inst of Comp Sc (SICS) Spr}kteknologi / Natural Language Processing
Box 1263, 164 28 Kista ph +46 8 752 15 00, fax +46 8 751 72 30
Stockholm, Sweden http://sics.se/~jussi/jussi-karlgren.html

 Kulbrandstad)


A week ago I posted a query on the existence of lists or newgroups dealing
with the didactics of linguistics for primary and secondary schools.Dick
Hudson, University College London (uclyrahucl.ac.uk), and Bert Peeters,
University of Tasmania (Bert.Peetersmodlang.utas.edu.au), have brought two
lists to my attention: one based in Australia (Engling) and another in the
UK (Edling). For the time being there seems to be very low activity on both
of them, so new subscribers and contributors are welcomed.Subscriptions are
made this way: For Engling send the one-line command "subscribe Engling" to
mailservunimelb.edu.au. For Edling send "subcribe Edling" to
majordomoeducation.leeds.ac.uk.

Three more persons have given me valuable information on the topic in
question.Pirjo Karvonen from Finland (karvonendomlang.fi) tells about an
ongoing discussion on pedagogic grammar in her country. It was set off last
year by the publication of a book written by professor Hakulinen and other
Finnish scholars and researchers.I am sure Pirjo on demand will furnish
more details.Joyce Tang Boyland from Berkeley (jtangcogsci.Berkeley.EDU)
writes that Walt Wolfram organized a symposium at NWAV23 (?) this past
October about linguistics in primary and secondary schools. Joyce
encourages me to try and get in e-touch with Walt Walfram on
wolframunity.ncsu.edu.(which I have done, but without success so far).Ingo
Plag from Marburg (plagMailer.Uni-Marburg.DE) mentions an article in the
Bromberger- festschrift THE VIEW FROM BUILDING 20, edited by Kenneth Hale
and Samuel Jay Keyser, MIT Press, 1993, about an experiment using
linguistics as a subject in high schools as an introduction to science.

Before closing I take the opportunity to air the following idea: a
net-based comparative research project on "knowledge about language" in the
school systems of different countries (contents, progression, methods,
justifications etc.). Let me know if this sounds interesting to you.

Lars Anders Kulbrandstad
Department of Teacher Education
Hedmark College
N-2300 HAMAR, NORWAY
Tel: +47 62 52 20 40
Fax: +47 62 52 86 40
E-mail: lakhamarlh.no