The syntax of conversational coherence

Abstract

This paper presents a systemic model of the syntax of conversational coherence. This model proposes that, in terms of coherence, conversations demonstrate the properties common to negative feedback systems. Thus, conversational coherence is a process consisting of a series of oscillations between periods of local coherence and incoherence, by which the global coherence of the conversion is maximized.

Four experiments were conducted to test this maximization hypothesis, that is, that the order of statements that occurs in a conversation is the most globally coherent possible permutation of the statements for that conversation. Four heterogeneous conversations were sampled (a televised political interview, friends chatting, and two telephone calls to a radio talk show). All possible pairs of statements in each conversation were scaled for coherence, and the resulting values were computer analyzed by a coherence modeling program. The results provided compelling evidence for a systemic model of coherence: In each case, the order of statements that actually occurred was more globally coherent than at least 96.3% of all possible alternative permutations. Also, the sequential coherence relations, when depicted graphically, consisted of a series of successive deviations between periods of coherence and incoherence.