Dimensions of communication

This study is concerned with the identification and analysis of dimensions of communication in dialogue, with the aim to provide theoretical and empirical arguments for chosing the dimensions in the ISO standard for dialogue act annotation 24617-2 “Semantic annotation framework, Part 2: Dialogue acts”. A ‘dimension’ in this context is a cluster of semantically related communicative functions which has a conceptual, theoretical and empirical significance. Five criteria are put forward for including a particular dimension in a multidimensional annotation schema: it should be (1) theoretically justified; (2) empirically observed; (3) recognizable by human annotators and by machine; ( 4) addressable independently of other dimensions; and (5) reflected in a significant number of existing dialogue act schemes. Eight dimensions are identified which fulfil all five criteria, and can be considered as ‘core’ aspects of dialogue communication, namely Task, Feedback, Turn Management, Social Obligation Management, Discourse Structuring, Own Communication Management, Partner Communication Management, and Time Management. Contact Management is proposed to be given the status of an optional additional dimension.