This paper is an exploration in the semantics and pragmatics of linguistic feedback, i.e., linguistic mechanisms which enable the participants in spoken interaction to exchange information about basic communicative functions, such as contact, perception, understanding, and attitudinal reactions to the communicated content. Special attention is given to the type of reaction conveyed by feedback utterances, the communicative status of the information conveyed (i. e., the level of awareness and intentionality of the communicating sender), and the context sensitivity of feedback expressions. With regard to context sensitivity, which is one of the most characteristic features of feedback expressions, the discussion focuses on the way in which the type of speech act (mood), the factual polarity and the information status of the preceding utterance influence the interpretation of feedback utterances. The different content dimensions are exemplified by data from recorded dialogues and by data given through linguistic intuition. Finally, two different ways of formalizing the analysis are examined, one using attribute-value matrices and one based on the theory of situation semantics.

Language Technology The aim of this study is to explore the realization of gestures related to verbal feedback expressions. Distributional, functional, typological and acoustic analyses of verbal and gestural feedback were carried out on spontaneous dialogues between a travel agent and some customers recorded in a travel agency in Sweden. The investigation addresses in particular the following research questions: Do gestural feedback expressions always co-occur with vocal/verbal feedback expressions? Or can they occur on their own? What is the function of feedback gestures? The results show that feedback is mostly expressed simultaneously by vocal/verbal and gestural means. The gestures accompanying verbal and vocal feedback expressions can be broadly categorized according to their function in the given context. Single head nods or jerks are the most frequent head movements accompanying feedback expressions in the Swedish dialogues we analysed. 1

Papers in GPTL cover general and theoretical topics in linguistics. The series contain papers from single individuals and project groups. It appears irregularly in two subseries, blue for English Papers, and green for Swedish Papers. i

this paper 1 have attempted to give an outline of some of the main ways In which culture and context impinge on language teaching. In section one, 1 give a brief theoretical suggestion for how one might conceive of the relation between language culture and context. I then suggest an analysis of the concept of "culture" which might serve as a background for a discussion of language learning and intercultural communication.

In this chapter we will describe and analyze a simulation of a factual information seeking system for a subsection of the "yellow pages". The subsection contains information about (i) car hire (ii) restaurants, and (iii) personal insurance. The simulation was

Two investigations of the fundamental frequency in Swedish feedback words are presented. The hypothesis that F0-patterns differ systematically for words signalling positive and negative feedback-i.e. agreement and disagreement with the utterance of the preceding speaker-cannot be confirmed from the investigated data of spontaneous dialogue in Swedish. Furthermore an identification test shows that it is difficult for native speakers of Swedish to differentiate between positive and negative feedback words when presented solely by their fundamental frequency. However, some fundamental frequency patterns are preferred over others to be representative for positive or negative feedback. 1.