Resonance as an Applied Predictor of Cross-Cultural Interaction: Constructional Priming in Mandarin and American English Interaction

Abstract In Dialogic syntax (cf. Du Bois 2014; Tantucci et al. 2018), naturalistic interaction is inherently grounded in resonance, viz. the catalytic activation of affinities across turns (Du and Giora 2014). Resonance occurs dynamically when interlocutors creatively coconstruct utterances that are formally phonetically similar to utterance a prior speaker. this study, we argue such similarity can inform machine learning prediction linguistic cross-cultural diversity. We compared two sets 1,000 exchanges involving (dis)-agreement from balanced Callhome corpora Mandarin Chinese American English. found correlation overt use pragmatic markers with indicating priming does not occur as an exclusively implicit mechanism (as it commonly held experimental literature e.g. Bock 1986; 2007), but naturalistically underpins dialogic engagement cooperation among interactants. fitted mixed effects linear regression hierarchical clustering model show resonance functionally different ways one language another. The applied results study lead novel turn AI research conversational interfaces (McTear 2016; Klopfenstein 2017), they reveal fundamental role played cross-linguistically by form human-to-human importance address machine-to-human communication.