Research profile

I’m working on modeling ambiguity resolution as pragmatic inference within the Rational Speech Act framework (Frank & Goodman, 2012). Ambiguity is often considered to be an unfortunate side-effect of communication that hinders information exchange. However, interlocutors not only employ efficient strategies to resolve ambiguities, but they can also choose to remain ambiguous to watch how their partners interpret ambiguous phrases. Speakers can then reason about which prior beliefs led the listener to a particular reading of an ambiguous phrase. Conversation partners are able to gain deeper understanding of each other’s beliefs and perspectives without explicitly asking about them. RSA framework gives us mathematical tools to model the process of pragmatic reasoning.

I lead an Emmy Noether junior research group “Socially-relevant pragmatic inference”. We investigate how background beliefs, perspectives, and attitudes affect the processes of speech production and interpretation, and how speakers and listeners infer each other’s beliefs during communication.