Examining the factors that affect structural repetition in question answering

Elliptical Responses to Direct and Indirect Requests for Information

We present two studies examining the factors that lead speakers to produce elliptical responses to requests for information. Following Clark and Levelt and Kelter, experimenters called businesses and asked about their closing time (e.g., Can you tell me what time you close?). Participants provided the requested information in full sentence responses (We close at 9) or elliptical responses (At 9). A reanalysis of data from previous experiments using this paradigm shows that participants are more likely to produce an elliptical response when the question is a direct request for information (What time do you close?) than when the question is an indirect request for information (Can you tell me what time you close?). Participants were less likely to produce an elliptical response when they began their answer by providing a yes/no response (e.g., Sure . . . we close at 9). A new experiment replicated these findings, and further showed that elliptical responses were less likely when (1) irrelevant linguistic content was inserted between the question and the participant's response, and (2) participants verbalized signs of difficulty retrieving the requested information. This latter effect is most prominent in response to questions that are seen as very polite (May I ask you what time you close?). We discuss the role that the recoverability of the intended meaning of the ellipsis, the accessibility of potential antecedents for the ellipsis, pragmatic factors, and memory retrieval play in shaping the production of ellipsis.

Structural priming in question-answer dialogues

We explored whether speakers self-prime during question-answer dialogues. Experimenters called restaurants and asked two questions. The first was about the timing of different menu options ((At)What time do you stop serving breakfast?), and the second was about the closing time of the restaurant ((At)What time do you close?). Participants were more likely to use a preposition in their responses (At 7 vs. 7) when experimenters used a preposition in their question. However, the participants' use of a preposition (or not) in their first response did not prime the use of a preposition in their second response (i.e., no self-priming). The lack of self-priming in these data provide support for error-based theories of structural priming, and against activation-based accounts of priming.