Social Boundaries of Appropriate Speech in HCI: A Politeness Perspective

This position paper presents the view that there may be social boundaries in appropriate speech in HCI. While previous research has examined that humanlike voices may not always be appropriate for computers to use, the same may hold true for linguistic concepts that have noticeable interpersonal and social functions. This paper examines the social functions of linguistic politeness to approach the issue of appropriate language use in spoken HCI, and the relationship between voices and language in this interaction space. Several studies exploring politeness in spoken HCI are discussed, with the view that it and other social talk may have different limitations in HCI, and that politeness itself may have to be subsequently reconsidered.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Leigh Clark

Conference

Publication date: July 2018

Publication date (Print): July 2018

Pages: 1-5

Affiliations

[0001]University College Dublin

School of Information & Communication Studies, Dublin, Ireland

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.76

SO-VID: 8551855c-4398-41e3-93b4-177b38a18f93

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 32

Conference location: Belfast, UK

Conference date: 4 - 6 July 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Human Computer Interaction Conference

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.76

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

References

H. P. BraniganM. J. PickeringJ. PearsonJ. F. McLean 2010 Linguistic alignment between people and computers Journal of Pragmatics 42 9 2355 2368 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.012
H. P. BraniganM. J. PickeringJ. PearsonJ. F. McLeanA. Brown 2011 The role of beliefs in lexical alignment: Evidence from dialogs with humans and computers Cognition 121 1 41 57 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.05.011
P. BrownS. C. Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage Cambridge University Press
D. Cameron 2001 Working with Spoken Discourse SAGE
J. Channell 1994 Vague Language Oxford University Press
L. ClarkA. OfemileS. AdolphsT. Rodden 2016 A Multimodal Approach to Assessing User Experiences with Agent Helpers ACM Trans. Interact. Intell. Syst 6 4 29:1 29:31 http://doi.org/10.1145/2983926
Leigh M. H. Clark 2016 Exploring vague language use and voice variation in human-agent interaction University of Nottingham Retrieved from http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37863
Leigh Clark Michael Harry, K. BachourA. OfemileS. AdolphsT. Rodden 2014 Potential of imprecision: exploring vague language in agent instructors 339 344 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/2658861.2658895
M. Coulthard 2013 Advances in Spoken Discourse Analysis. Routledge
B. R. CowanN. PantidiD. CoyleK. MorrisseyP. ClarkeS. Al-Shehri, … N. Bandeira 2017 „What can i help you with?‟: infrequent users‟ experiences of intelligent personal assistants 1 12 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/3098279.3098539
J. Cutting 2007 Vague language explored Basingstoke [England]; New York Palgrave Macmillian
E. Goffman 2005 Interaction Ritual: Essays in Face to Face Behavior Routledge
R. T. Lakoff 2004 Language and Woman’s Place: Text and Commentaries Oxford University Press
D. R. LargeL. ClarkA. QuandtG. BurnettL. Skrypchuk 2017 Steering the conversation: A linguistic exploration of natural language interactions with a digital assistant during simulated driving Applied Ergonomics 63 53 61 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2017.04.003
M. A. LocherR. J. Watts 2005 Politeness Theory and Relational Work Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 1 1 http://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2005.1.1.9
S. Mills 2005 Gender and impoliteness Journal of Politeness Research 1 2 263 280 http://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2005.1.2.263
R. K. Moore 2017a Appropriate Voices for Artefacts: Some Key Insights 1st International Workshop on Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals and Robots
R. K. Moore 2017b Is Spoken Language All-or-Nothing? Implications for Future Speech-Based Human-Machine Interaction In Dialogues with Social Robots 281 291 Springer Singapore http://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2585-3_22
C. NassK. M. Lee 2000 Does computer-generated speech manifest personality? an experimental test of similarity-attraction 329 336 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/332040.332452
C. NassJ. SteuerE. R. Tauber 1994 Computers are social actors 204 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/259963.260288
M. StraitC. CanningM. Scheutz 2014 Let me tell you! investigating the effects of robot communication strategies in advice-giving situations based on robot appearance, interaction modality and distance 479 486 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/2559636.2559670
C. TorreyS. R. FussellS. Kiesler 2013 How a robot should give advice 275 282 IEEE http://doi.org/10.1109/HRI.2013.6483599
N. WangW. L. JohnsonR. E. MayerP. RizzoE. ShawH. Collins 2008 The politeness effect: Pedagogical agents and learning outcomes International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 66 2 98 112 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2007.09.003

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] H. P. BraniganM. J. PickeringJ. PearsonJ. F. McLean 2010 Linguistic alignment between people and computers Journal of Pragmatics 42 9 2355 2368 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.012

[2] H. P. BraniganM. J. PickeringJ. PearsonJ. F. McLeanA. Brown 2011 The role of beliefs in lexical alignment: Evidence from dialogs with humans and computers Cognition 121 1 41 57 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.05.011

[3] P. BrownS. C. Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage Cambridge University Press

[4] D. Cameron 2001 Working with Spoken Discourse SAGE

[5] J. Channell 1994 Vague Language Oxford University Press

[6] L. ClarkA. OfemileS. AdolphsT. Rodden 2016 A Multimodal Approach to Assessing User Experiences with Agent Helpers ACM Trans. Interact. Intell. Syst 6 4 29:1 29:31 http://doi.org/10.1145/2983926

[7] Leigh M. H. Clark 2016 Exploring vague language use and voice variation in human-agent interaction University of Nottingham Retrieved from http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37863

[8] Leigh Clark Michael Harry, K. BachourA. OfemileS. AdolphsT. Rodden 2014 Potential of imprecision: exploring vague language in agent instructors 339 344 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/2658861.2658895

[9] M. Coulthard 2013 Advances in Spoken Discourse Analysis. Routledge

[10] B. R. CowanN. PantidiD. CoyleK. MorrisseyP. ClarkeS. Al-Shehri, … N. Bandeira 2017 „What can i help you with?‟: infrequent users‟ experiences of intelligent personal assistants 1 12 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/3098279.3098539

[11] J. Cutting 2007 Vague language explored Basingstoke [England]; New York Palgrave Macmillian

[12] E. Goffman 2005 Interaction Ritual: Essays in Face to Face Behavior Routledge

[13] R. T. Lakoff 2004 Language and Woman’s Place: Text and Commentaries Oxford University Press

[14] D. R. LargeL. ClarkA. QuandtG. BurnettL. Skrypchuk 2017 Steering the conversation: A linguistic exploration of natural language interactions with a digital assistant during simulated driving Applied Ergonomics 63 53 61 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2017.04.003

[15] M. A. LocherR. J. Watts 2005 Politeness Theory and Relational Work Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 1 1 http://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2005.1.1.9

[16] S. Mills 2005 Gender and impoliteness Journal of Politeness Research 1 2 263 280 http://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2005.1.2.263

[17] R. K. Moore 2017a Appropriate Voices for Artefacts: Some Key Insights 1st International Workshop on Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals and Robots

[18] R. K. Moore 2017b Is Spoken Language All-or-Nothing? Implications for Future Speech-Based Human-Machine Interaction In Dialogues with Social Robots 281 291 Springer Singapore http://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2585-3_22

[19] C. NassK. M. Lee 2000 Does computer-generated speech manifest personality? an experimental test of similarity-attraction 329 336 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/332040.332452

[20] C. NassJ. SteuerE. R. Tauber 1994 Computers are social actors 204 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/259963.260288

[21] M. StraitC. CanningM. Scheutz 2014 Let me tell you! investigating the effects of robot communication strategies in advice-giving situations based on robot appearance, interaction modality and distance 479 486 ACM Press http://doi.org/10.1145/2559636.2559670

[22] C. TorreyS. R. FussellS. Kiesler 2013 How a robot should give advice 275 282 IEEE http://doi.org/10.1109/HRI.2013.6483599

[23] N. WangW. L. JohnsonR. E. MayerP. RizzoE. ShawH. Collins 2008 The politeness effect: Pedagogical agents and learning outcomes International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 66 2 98 112 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2007.09.003

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