{"pk":28742,"title":"The Computational Structure of Unintentional Meaning","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Speech-acts can have literal meaning as well as pragmaticmeaning, but these both involve consequences typically in-tended by a speaker. Speech-acts can also have unintentionalmeaning, in which what is conveyed goes above and beyondwhat was intended. Here, we present a Bayesian analysis ofhow, to a listener, the meaning of an utterance can significantlydiffer from a speaker’s intended meaning. Our model em-phasizes how comprehending the intentional and unintentionalmeaning of speech-acts requires listeners to engage in sophisti-cated model-based perspective-taking and reasoning about thehistory of the state of the world, each other’s actions, and eachother’s observations. To test our model, we have human partic-ipants make judgments about vignettes where speakers makeutterances that could be interpreted as intentional insults or un-intentional faux pas. In elucidating the mechanics of speech-acts with unintentional meanings, our account provides insightinto how communication both functions and malfunctions.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Bayesian modeling"},{"word":"social cognition"},{"word":"commonground"},{"word":"speech-act theory"},{"word":"faux pas"},{"word":"Theory of mind"}],"section":"Papers with Poster Presentations","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4064p2k0","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Mark","middle_name":"K.","last_name":"Ho","name_suffix":"","institution":"Princeton University","department":""},{"first_name":"Joanna","middle_name":"","last_name":"Korman","name_suffix":"","institution":"The MITRE Corporation","department":""},{"first_name":"Thomas","middle_name":"L.","last_name":"Griffiths","name_suffix":"","institution":"Princeton University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2019-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/28742/galley/18613/download/"}]}