Nesta dissertação observo a experiência conversacional dos interagentes nos comentários dos blogs Melhores do Mundo, Interney e Pensar Enlouquece. A organização da conversa nos três ambientes foi feita e representada graficamente para auxílio na observação de como os interagentes conversam nos blogs. Entrevistas com os autores dos blogs e a Análise da Conversação nos comentários de suas postagens serviram de instrumento de análise. A interação mediada por computador foi contrastada com a face a face para se tomar conhecimento das transformações no virtual em relação ao presencial. Os resultados apontam que as práticas dos blogueiros ao lidarem com os comentários interferem na forma como se dá a conversação online nesse ambiente. O controle dos comentários ou a falta dele por parte do blogueiro ora orienta à interação um-um, ora orienta à interação todos-todos. O resultado mostra práticas de como são as conversas nos espaços de comentários desses blogs e oferece indícios para o estudo da conversação online. / On this essay I observe the conversational experience of the interacting on the comments of blogs Melhores do Mundo, Interney and Pensar Enlouquece. The arrangement of the conversation in all three environments was done and represented graphically to help the observation of how he interacting talk on the blogs. Interviews with the blogs' writers and the Conversation Analysis on the comments to their postings served as instruments of analysis. The computer-mediated interaction was contrasted with the face-to-face interaction, in order to acknowledge the transformations in the virtual, in relation to presential. The results point that the practice of the bloggers while dealing with comments interferes on the way the conversation is held in given environment. The control over the comments, or the lack of it by the blogger, sometimes orients to one-to-one interaction, while other times orients to all-to-all interaction. The result shows practices of how the conversations on these blogs' comment areas are, and offers indication to the studies of online conversation.

Les interactions entre marques et consommateurs font l’objet de nombreuses recherches, notamment depuis l’avènement des médias sociaux. Cette recherche porte sur un mode d’interaction peu étudié, la conversation de marque, définie comme une suite de messages échangés en ligne et en public entre plusieurs individus dont un au moins représente une marque. Pour étudier ce phénomène, nous réalisons deux études qualitatives et trois études quantitatives. En faisant appel à la théorie du face-work, nous montrons que la marque parait plus humaine quand elle respecte les règles de la communication interpersonnelle. Cependant, ces règles sont altérées quand la conversation porte sur les produits et quand les consommateurs sont attachés à la marque. Cette recherche contribue à la littérature sur les interactions marques-consommateurs et à la littérature sur l’anthropomorphisme en montrant l’impact des pratiques conversationnelles des marques sur l’attitude des consommateurs. / Brand-consumers interaction is an emerging topic in marketing research especially since the advent of social media. This research focuses on a little-studied type of interaction, brand conversation. Brand conversation is defined as a series of messages exchanged online and in public between several individuals, at least one of them being a brand representative. To study this phenomenon, we carry out two qualitative studies and three quantitative studies. Using face-work theory, we show that brands seem to be more human by following interpersonal communication rules. However, these rules are slightly altered in a marketing context, especially when the conversation is about products and when consumers are attached to the brand. This research contributes to the literature on brand-consumer interaction and to the literature on brand anthropomorphism by showing the impact of brand conversational practices on consumer attitudes.

<p>Different abilities are of importance to pragmatics, there among hearing. Hearing impairment can affect language development and also pragmatic ability. The aim of the present paper was to study the pragmatic ability in terms of request for clarification in children with Hearing Impairment (HI) in conversation with children with no known hearing impairment, henceforth normally hearing (NH). The present study also describes requests for clarification sequentially in detail, and also highlights points where there may be observable differences between children with and without hearing impairment. Eight conversational pairs consisting of one child with HI and one NH child were studied. Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC) was filled out by the parents and teachers of the children with HI in order to complement the description of the pragmatic ability in children with HI. Conversation Analysis was used in order to make the study of interaction as open-minded as possible. The conversation extracts were grouped according to task or non-task oriented interaction based on the activities that occurred.</p><p>The results of the present study showed that the children with HI and NH both used non-specific and specific requests for clarification, and that these types of requests were used in both task and non-task oriented interaction. Children with HI used the non-specific request "sorry?" to greater extent in the extracts than children with NH did. In general, no differences in occurrence of specific requests were seen between children with HI and children with NH. As regards to what happened before and after requests for clarifications, no distinct differences could be established between children with HI and children with NH. In conclusion, it is not certain if and how a hearing impairment have affected the pragmatic ability, although tendencies in the conversation extracts indicated that hearing impairment sometimes affected the interaction.</p> / <p>Pragmatik är beroende av många förmågor, däribland hörseln. En hörselnedsättning kan ha inverkan på den språkliga utvecklingen och även den pragmatiska förmågan. Syftet med föreliggande arbete var att studera den pragmatiska förmågan gällande begärande om förtydligande hos barn med hörselnedsättning (HNS) i samtal med barn utan känd hörselnedsättning, hädanefter normalhörande (NH). Studien ämnade belysa begäranden om förtydligande i sekventiell analys, samt om skillnader mellan barn med HNS och NH kunde ses. Åtta samtalspar bestående av ett barn med hörselnedsättning och ett barn med normal hörsel studerades. Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC) fylldes i av föräldrar och lärare till barnen med HNS för att utgöra ett komplement i beskrivandet av den pragmatiska förmågan hos barnen med HNS. Conversation Analysis användes för att på ett så öppet sätt som möjligt studera interaktionen och se vilka fenomen som förekom. Samtalsutdragen delades in efter uppgiftsorienterade respektive icke-uppgiftsorienterade samtal beroende på vilka aktiviteter som förekom.</p><p>Resultaten av föreliggande studie visade att barnen med HNS och NH använde sig av både icke-specificerade och specificerade begäranden om förtydligande, och att dessa användes i både uppgiftsorienterat och icke-uppgiftsorienterat samtal. Barnen med HNS använde i större utsträckning det icke-specificerade begärandet "va" i utdragen än vad barnen med NH gjorde. Generella skillnader gällande specificerade begäranden kunde inte ses mellan barn med HNS och barn med NH. Inga tydliga skillnader kunde konstateras mellan barn med HNS och barn med NH gällande vad som föregick respektive följde efter begärandena om förtydligande. Slutligen visades att det inte säkert kan sägas om och hur en hörselnedsättning påverkat den pragmatiska förmågan, även om tendenser i samtalsutdragen indikerar att hörselnedsättningen kan ha inverkat på interaktionen.</p>

<p></p><p>Studies have shown that patients receiving mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit (ICU), who are entirely dependent on the nursing staff, often experience frustration due to a temporary loss of the voice source. Limited communication is an important factor contributing to patient discomfort. Nursing staff also report communication as frustrating and difficult.</p><p>The aim of the present study is to introduce a neck-type electrolarynx as a communication aid in an ICU, to study the nursing staff experiences of communication with tracheotomized patients receiving mechanical ventilation, and to examine the patient´s experiences regarding communicative abilities. Communication between a ventilator treated, tracheotomized patient and members of the nursing staff was recorded and analyzed according to principles of Conversation Analysis (CA).</p><p>The results show that several members of the nursing staff experience difficulties communicating with tracheotomized patients receiving mechanical ventilation. A majority believe that the conditions for communication could be improved. The results of CA also indicate that an electrolarynx may be an effective and appropriate communication aid for ventilator treated, tracheostomized patients. Further research is needed to broaden the knowledge of<strong> </strong>the electrolarynx as a communication aid for these patients.</p><p>Keywords: communication, mechanical ventilation, electrolarynx, patient experience, nursing staff experience, Conversation Analysis (CA).</p>

Ph.D. / Computer Science and Electrical Engineering / We envision that next-generation spoken dialogue systems will be supporting a complex user goal and multiple parallel tasks, which requires the system and the user to jointly direct the flow of conversation. The problem, however, is that there lacks an effective model of directing the flow of conversation. This thesis research aims to develop such a model for next-generation spoken dialogue systems. We started with conventions actually used in human-human dialogue, which are natural for users to follow and probably also efficient in problem-solving. An annotation framework, DialogueView, was established to allow for the investigation of complex interaction in dialogue. A series of empirical studies on two corpora, the Trains and the MTD, were then conducted to understand people's initiative behavior of directing the conversation flow. We first examined people's initiative behavior in decomposing a complex goal into sub-goals and achieving each of them in the Trains domain. We found that initiative is subservient to discourse goal. We next examined people's initiative behavior in switching the conversation to a more urgent task. We found that conversants strive to switch tasks at a less disruptive place; but where they cannot, they exert additional effort to signal the task switching, such as increasing pitch. We finally examined people's behavior on initiative conflicts, where both conversants try to direct the conversation at the same time. We found that conversants try to avoid initiative conflicts; but when initiative conflicts occur, they are efficiently resolved with simple linguistic devices such as volume. Computer simulation experiments were also conducted to better understand the underlying benefits of using the human conventions. Our findings on human-human dialogues have important implication for building next-generation spoken dialogue systems by (1) guiding the system when to show initiative, and when to let the user show initiative; (2) guiding the system when and how to switch to a more urgent task, and to understand the user's switch; and (3) guiding the system how to resolve and repair initiative conflicts.

Different abilities are of importance to pragmatics, there among hearing. Hearing impairment can affect language development and also pragmatic ability. The aim of the present paper was to study the pragmatic ability in terms of request for clarification in children with Hearing Impairment (HI) in conversation with children with no known hearing impairment, henceforth normally hearing (NH). The present study also describes requests for clarification sequentially in detail, and also highlights points where there may be observable differences between children with and without hearing impairment. Eight conversational pairs consisting of one child with HI and one NH child were studied. Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC) was filled out by the parents and teachers of the children with HI in order to complement the description of the pragmatic ability in children with HI. Conversation Analysis was used in order to make the study of interaction as open-minded as possible. The conversation extracts were grouped according to task or non-task oriented interaction based on the activities that occurred. The results of the present study showed that the children with HI and NH both used non-specific and specific requests for clarification, and that these types of requests were used in both task and non-task oriented interaction. Children with HI used the non-specific request "sorry?" to greater extent in the extracts than children with NH did. In general, no differences in occurrence of specific requests were seen between children with HI and children with NH. As regards to what happened before and after requests for clarifications, no distinct differences could be established between children with HI and children with NH. In conclusion, it is not certain if and how a hearing impairment have affected the pragmatic ability, although tendencies in the conversation extracts indicated that hearing impairment sometimes affected the interaction. / Pragmatik är beroende av många förmågor, däribland hörseln. En hörselnedsättning kan ha inverkan på den språkliga utvecklingen och även den pragmatiska förmågan. Syftet med föreliggande arbete var att studera den pragmatiska förmågan gällande begärande om förtydligande hos barn med hörselnedsättning (HNS) i samtal med barn utan känd hörselnedsättning, hädanefter normalhörande (NH). Studien ämnade belysa begäranden om förtydligande i sekventiell analys, samt om skillnader mellan barn med HNS och NH kunde ses. Åtta samtalspar bestående av ett barn med hörselnedsättning och ett barn med normal hörsel studerades. Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC) fylldes i av föräldrar och lärare till barnen med HNS för att utgöra ett komplement i beskrivandet av den pragmatiska förmågan hos barnen med HNS. Conversation Analysis användes för att på ett så öppet sätt som möjligt studera interaktionen och se vilka fenomen som förekom. Samtalsutdragen delades in efter uppgiftsorienterade respektive icke-uppgiftsorienterade samtal beroende på vilka aktiviteter som förekom. Resultaten av föreliggande studie visade att barnen med HNS och NH använde sig av både icke-specificerade och specificerade begäranden om förtydligande, och att dessa användes i både uppgiftsorienterat och icke-uppgiftsorienterat samtal. Barnen med HNS använde i större utsträckning det icke-specificerade begärandet "va" i utdragen än vad barnen med NH gjorde. Generella skillnader gällande specificerade begäranden kunde inte ses mellan barn med HNS och barn med NH. Inga tydliga skillnader kunde konstateras mellan barn med HNS och barn med NH gällande vad som föregick respektive följde efter begärandena om förtydligande. Slutligen visades att det inte säkert kan sägas om och hur en hörselnedsättning påverkat den pragmatiska förmågan, även om tendenser i samtalsutdragen indikerar att hörselnedsättningen kan ha inverkat på interaktionen.

 Studies have shown that patients receiving mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit (ICU), who are entirely dependent on the nursing staff, often experience frustration due to a temporary loss of the voice source. Limited communication is an important factor contributing to patient discomfort. Nursing staff also report communication as frustrating and difficult. The aim of the present study is to introduce a neck-type electrolarynx as a communication aid in an ICU, to study the nursing staff experiences of communication with tracheotomized patients receiving mechanical ventilation, and to examine the patient´s experiences regarding communicative abilities. Communication between a ventilator treated, tracheotomized patient and members of the nursing staff was recorded and analyzed according to principles of Conversation Analysis (CA). The results show that several members of the nursing staff experience difficulties communicating with tracheotomized patients receiving mechanical ventilation. A majority believe that the conditions for communication could be improved. The results of CA also indicate that an electrolarynx may be an effective and appropriate communication aid for ventilator treated, tracheostomized patients. Further research is needed to broaden the knowledge of the electrolarynx as a communication aid for these patients. Keywords: communication, mechanical ventilation, electrolarynx, patient experience, nursing staff experience, Conversation Analysis (CA).

Conversation Analysis (CA) is a tool to facilitate analysis of everyday conversations. A small number of studies have used CA as an intervention for people with aphasia and have seen positive effects as an outcome of the intervention. The authors of the present study have not found any other studies where CA was used as an intervention in other target groups. The purpose of this study was to investigate if CA may be used in intervention with an adolescent who uses Bliss. The main participants in the present study, which the intervention was based upon, were a sixteen year old girl who communicates through Bliss, and her assistant. The participants were filmed in everyday situations. The video recordings were transcribed and primarily analysed according to CA principles by the authors. The authors of the present study observed both well functioning and not so well functioning communication patterns. The three interventions were based on video recordings, transcriptions and analyses. During the interventions, the authors of the study discussed patterns in communication with the participants. The participants were then given information about selected transcriptions, video recordings and analyses that the authors considered contained interesting patterns. Focus of each intervention was on turn-taking, repair, topic and non-verbal communication. The results of the intervention showed that certain communication patterns that the authors had previously regarded to be less functioning had subsequently improved in certain aspects. Comparisons made before and after the intervention showed that the girl had been given more emancipation to decide topic of conversation and take own initiative in the communication after the intervention. The results also showed that CA can be used to find new Bliss symbols that could be used in addition to the Swedish Bliss standard chart. In regard to turn-taking, repairs and non-verbal communication, similar patterns were observed prior to and after the intervention was carried out. / Conversation Analysis (CA) tillhandahåller verktyg för att analysera samtal i vardagen. Ett fåtal studier har använt CA i intervention med personer med afasi och har sett positiva effekter av interventionen. Författarna till föreliggande studie har inte funnit några andra studier där CA används som intervention för andra målgrupper. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka om CA kan användas vid intervention med en ungdom som använder sig av bliss i kommunikationen. Huvuddeltagarna i studien, som interventionen baserades på, var en 16-årig flicka som kommunicerar genom bliss, samt hennes assistent. Deltagarna filmades i vardagliga situationer. Videoinspelningarna transkriberades och analyserades huvudsakligen enligt CAs principer av uppsatsförfattarna. Kommunikationsmönster, både välfungerande och mindre välfungerande, konstaterades. Videoinspelningarna, transkriptionerna och analyserna låg sedan till grund för de tre interventionstillfällena där nya videoinspelningar utfördes mellan interventionerna. Under interventionerna diskuterade uppsatsförfattarna, tillsammans med deltagarna, mönster i kommunikationen. Deltagarna fick då ta del av utvalda transkriptioner, videoinspelningar samt analyser som ansågs ha intressanta mönster. De områden som interventionerna fokuserade på var turtagning, reparation, samtalsämne och icke-verbal kommunikation. Resultatet av interventionen i studien visar att vissa mönster i kommunikationen, som uppsatsförfattarna innan interventionen ansåg fungerade mindre bra, nu hade förbättrats i vissa avseenden. Jämförelserna innan samt efter intervention visade att flickan givits mer utrymme att bestämma samtalsämne och ta egna initiativ i kommunikationen efter intervention. Resultatet visade även att CA kan användas för att upptäcka vilka nya blissymboler som skulle behövas som komplement till standardblisskartan. Inom områdena turtagning, reparation och icke-verbal kommunikation konstaterades liknande mönster både före samt efter intervention.

I institutionella samtal såsom närståendesamtal mellan en logoped, en närstående till en person med afasi och personen med afasi råder en asymmetri gällande maktförhållandet. Asymmetrin som uppstår i det institutionella samtalet kan innebära att samtalsdeltagaren med minst makt upplever ansiktshot. I samtal ses förståelse som en dynamisk process och när förståelsen innebär ett problem i konversationen störs den pågående aktiviteten. Mottagaren kan lösa problemet som uppstått genom att ge talaren en candidate understanding. Hur kommunikativa strategier används i närståendesamtal är ett relativt obeforskat område och ett viktigt område då närståendesamtal är en vanligt förekommande för logopeder. Syftet med föreliggande studie var därför att undersöka ett antal kommunikativa strategier för att få en gemensam förståelse och minska ansiktshot  vid delgivning av testresultat och rådgivning i närståendesamtal. Tre närståendesamtal mellan logopeder, närstående och i två fall personer med afasi spelades in, transkriberades och analyserades enligt samtalsanalytiska principer (CA). Två logopeder, tre närstående och två personer med afasi medverkade i studien. Totalt omfattade det inspelade materialet en timma och 37 minuter. Deltagande logopeder fick även fylla i ett frågeformulär. Strategier för avdramatisering och förståelse identifierades. Strategierna delades in i två kategorier; avdramatisering av råd och förmedling av testresultat och candidate understandings för att uppnå förståelse. I studien framkom det att candidate understandings ofta initierades av den närstående. Det framkom även att de positiva testresultaten som förmedlades inte avdramatiserades samt att dessa istället ofta framhävdes och att face threatenings acts vid delgivning av negativa testresultat ofta avdramatiserades med hedging. / In institutional interactions such as conversations between a speech and language therapist, a person closely related to a person with aphasia and the individual with aphasia there is an asymmetry considering the power. The asymmetry arising in institutional interactions may mean that the participant with the least power will experience a face threatening act. Understanding is seen as a dynamic process and when understanding is a problem in the conversation the ongoing activity is disturbed. The receiver can solve the problem by giving the speaker a candidate understanding. How these strategies are used in conversations between a speech and language therapist with a person closely related to a person with aphasia is a relatively unexplored field and an important area which is a common for speech therapists. The aim of the present study was to investigate a number of communication strategies in the conversation with a person closely related to a person with aphasia; how understanding was reached and how face threatening acts were reduced when the speech therapists delivered test results and gave counseling. Three conversations between speech and language therapists, persons closely related to a person with aphasia and in two of the recordings the person with aphasia were recorded, transcribed and analyzed according to principles of Conversation Analysis (CA). Two speech and language therapists, three persons closely related to a person with aphasia and two persons with aphasia participated in the study. In total, the recorded material is one hour and 37 minutes. Participating speech and language therapists also filled in a questionnaire. Strategies for mitigation and understanding were identified. The strategies were divided into two categories; strategies to mitigate FTA:s when delivering the test results and counseling, the other categorie was the use of candidate understandings for gaining an mutual understanding. The study revealed that candidate understandings were often initiated by the person closely related to a person with aphasia. The study also revealed that the test results with positive outcome where not mitigated and often emphasized and test results that could be perceived as negative were mitigated with hedging.

Le sujet de la gestion du risque m’a toujours interpelée, surtout après que j’ai vécu deux ouragans et un tremblement de terre dévastateurs au Salvador. Bien qu’on ait assez écrit sur le sujet en le reliant souvent aux changements climatiques, on ne sait pas comment les organisations gouvernementales et civiles vivent cette gestion du risque au quotidien. À partir d’une étude ethnographique de la Commission de la protection civile de la Mairie de Tecoluca au Salvador, j’observais les processus qui se mettent en place dans la recherche et l’analyse des facteurs structuraux causant les situations de vulnérabilité. Pour ce faire, j’adoptais une approche basée sur l’étude des interactions, mobilisant les théories de la cognition distribuée et de l’acteur réseau. Comme je le montre, la gestion du risque, vue comme un processus participatif, se caractérise, d’une part, par la coopération et la coordination entre les personnes et, d’autre part, par la contribution d’outils, de technologies, de documents et de méthodes contribuant à la détection de risques. Ceci exige la mobilisation de connaissances qui doivent être produites, partagées et distribuées entre les membres d’un groupe à travers les divers artéfacts, outils, méthodes et technologies qu’ils mobilisent et qui les mobilisent. À ce sujet, la théorie de la cognition distribuée permet d’explorer des interactions qui se produisent au sein d’un groupe de travail en se focalisant sur ce qui contribue à l’acte de connaitre, conçu comme une activité non pas seulement individuelle, mais surtout collective et distribuée. Par ailleurs, la théorie de l’acteur-réseau me permet, quant à elle, de montrer comment dans l’exécution de cette tâche (la gestion du risque), la contribution active d’acteurs non humains, tant en soi qu’en relations avec les acteurs humains, participe de l’activité de détection et de prévention du risque. / The subject of risk management has always interested me, especially after I lived through two hurricanes and a devastating earthquake in El Salvador. Although there is a lot of literature on this subject, often linked to the question of climate change, we do not know how governmental and civil organizations deal with risk management on a daily basis. Based on an ethnographic study of the Civil Protection Commission of the mayoralty of Tecoluca, El Salvador, I observed processes that are taking place in the research and analysis of structural factors causing situations of vulnerability. To do this, I adopted an approach based on the study of interactions, involving the theory of distributed cognition and actor-network theory. As I show, the risk management seen as a participatory process is characterized, on one side, by the cooperation and coordination of individuals and, on the other side, by the contribution of tools, technologies, materials and methods that contribute to the detection of risk. This requires the mobilization of knowledge that must be produced, shared and distributed among the members of a group through the various artefacts, tools, methods and technologies that they mobilize and that mobilize them. In this regard, the theory of distributed cognition allows me to explore the interactions that occur within a working group by focusing on what contributes to the act of knowing, an activity is not just individual but also collective and distributed. Moreover, the actor-network theory allows me to show how in the execution of this task (risk management), the active contribution of non-human actors, both by themselves and in relation to human actors, participates in activities of detection and risk prevention.