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Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Phänomen der deutschen Modalpartikeln (MPn), das in der linguistischen Forschung viel Aufmerksamkeit erhalten hat, aber fast immer nur innerhalb der Satzgrenzen betrachtet wurde. Es wurde mehrfach vorgeschlagen, dass MPn eine Funktion im Hinblick auf Common Ground-Management haben, jedoch wird nie ausgeführt, wie diese zustande kommt. In dieser Arbeit wird gezeigt, wie die Bedeutung und Funktion verschiedener MPn im Rahmen eines erweiterten Common Ground-Modells erfasst werden kann. In einem zweiten Schritt wird in zwei empirischen Studien die Interaktion von MPn mit Diskursstruktur analysiert, wobei Diskursstruktur hier im Rahmen von Diskursrelationen modelliert wird. Dafür wurden in einem Korpus von Parlamentsreden (126.000 Token) alle Sätze, die eine MP (ja, doch, eben, halt, wohl und schon wurden analysiert) enthalten im Hinblick auf ihre Relationen zu adjazenten Diskurseinheiten annotiert. Verwendet wurde dafür die in der Rhetorischen Strukturtheorie (Mann & Thompson 1989) vorgeschlagenen Relationen. Die statistische Analyse der Ergebnisse zeigen signifikante Präferenzen der einzelnen MPn für bestimmte Diskursrelationen. Diese wurden anschließend in einem Lexical Choice Experiment überprüft und bestätigt, bei dem SprecherInnen im Kontext verschiedener Diskursrelationen auswählen sollten, welche MP am natürlichsten in einen Diskurs passt. SprecherInnen verwenden MPn, um zu zeigen, in welchem Verhältnis eine Proposition zu anderen steht oder um die Proposition auf eine bestimmte Art und Weise im Diskurs zu verankern, z.B. in dem sie als Hintergrundinformation markiert wird. Die beiden empirischen Studien zeigen zum ersten Mal, wie SprecherInnen diese Funktionen nutzen – und teilweise ausnutzen – um Diskurs zu strukturieren, Diskursrelationen hervorzuheben und so Kohärenz zu fördern. Gleichzeitig zeigt diese Arbeit, dass ein erweitertes Common Ground-Modell notwendig ist, um den Beitrag von MPn adäquat zu erfassen. / This work focuses on the phenomenon of German modal particles (Mps) which has received much attention in linguistic research – however mainly restricted to an analysis inside the sentence boundaries. It has been proposed that the function of Mps can be described with respect to common ground management, but this has never been spelled out in detail. Here, the meaning and function of different Mps will be captured in a broadened common ground model. In a second step, two empirical studies analyse the interaction of MPs and discourse structure – here modelled in terms of discourse relations. In a corpus of parliament speeches (126.000 word tokens), all sentences containing a modal particle (ja, doch, eben, halt, wohl and schon have been analyzed) were annotated for their discourse relations towards adjacent discourse units. The statistical analysis of the results reveals clear preferences of the single particles for different discourse relations. These preference were tested again in a follow-up experiment, a lexical choice task in which speakers had to decide which particle fits most naturally in contexts of different discourse relations. The results verified the findings of the corpus study. Overall, MPs can be used to indicate to the addressee how a proposition that is asserted by the speaker is related to (an)other proposition(s) and anchor information in discourse structure in a certain way, e.g. by marking it as background information. The results of the empirical studies show for the first time how speakers can make use of these functions – sometimes by exploiting them – to structure discourse, enhance the function of discourse relations and thereby establish coherence. At the same time, it becomes clear that a broader model of common ground is needed to capture this function of MPs in discourse appropriately.

Communication between humans and interactive robots will benefit if people have a clear mental model of the robots' intent and awareness. The aim with this thesis was to investigate how human-robot interaction is affected by manipulation of social cues on the robot. The research questions were: How do social cues affect mental models of the Pepper robot, and how can a participatory design method be used for investigating how the Pepper robot could communicate intent and awareness? The hypothesis for the second question was that nonverbal cues would be preferred over verbal cues. An existing standard platform was used, Softbank's Pepper, as well as state-of-the-art tasks from the RoboCup@Home challenge. The rule book and observations from the 2018 competition were thematically coded and the themes created eight scenarios. A participatory design method called PICTIVE was used in a design study, where five student participants went through three phases, label, sketch and interview, to create a design for how the robot should communicate intent and awareness. The use of PICTIVE was a suitable way to extract a lot of design ideas. However, not all scenarios were optimal for the task. The design study confirmed the use of mediating physical attributes to alter the mental model of a humanoid robot to reach common ground. Further, it did not confirm the hypothesis that nonverbal cues would be preferred over verbal cues, though it did show that verbal cues would not be enough. This, however, needs to be further tested in live interactions.

The complexity in the world is continuously increasing. Teams are faced with imperfect information in uncertain, dynamic, and time critical environments as they strive to make the right decisions, not just as individuals, but as a team. In this joint activity the members choreograph their actions and synchronize their behavior through the use of communication. Communication is the predominant form of interaction within teams – it is not only a window into team cognition – it is an externalized cognitive process at a team level (Letsky, Warner, Fiore & Smith, 2008). In an earlier study, non-professional participants were trained in teams of three to become high-performing within the C3Fire microworld (Baroutsi, Berggren, Nählinder and Johansson, 2013). In this microworld the team members are faced with the dynamic decision problem of fighting a forest fire. They have interdependent roles, requiring them to coordinate and strategize on a team level, making C3Fire a suitable platform for investigating dynamic decision making in teams. These six trained teams were compared to six untrained teams in a final experiment through a variety of measures, showing that the trained teams differed significantly in terms of both performance and in other important team aspects (Baroutsi, Berggren, Johansson, Nählinder, Granlund, Turcotte, & Tremblay, 2014; Berggren, Baroutsi, Johansson, Turcotte, & Tremblay, 2014; Berggren, Johansson, Baroutsi, & Dahlbäck, 2014; Berggren, Johansson, Svensson, Baroutsi, & Dahlbäck, 2014; Baroutsi, Berggren, Johansson, manuscript). These differences were thought to have an impact on the communication shared among the team members. Hence, the purpose of the present report was to investigate how the communication pattern was affected by these differences. The communication was analyzed using a coding scheme that categorized the content of the teams’ utterances. No difference was found in terms of communication frequency between the two types of teams. However, the trained and untrained teams did differ in communication content. The trained teams communicated more frequently about the context and the situation, while the untrained teams communicated more about the activities of the team. This can be interpreted as a deficiency in common ground, directability, and interpredictability (Klein, Feltovich & Bradshaw, 2005) among the untrained teams. Also, the communication content explained 88.3 % of the variance in performance. / I en värld av ständigt ökande komplexitet, som karaktäriseras av ofullständig information och dynamiska, tidskritiska miljöer, strävar människor efter att fatta rätt beslut – inte som individer – utan även som ett team. I denna gemensamma aktivitet behöver medlemmarna synkronisera sina handlingar, vilket utförs med hjälp av kommunikation. Kommunikationen är den dominerande formen av interaktion inom ett team, och är även en externalisering av teamets kognitiva processer (Letsky, Warner, Fiore & Smith, 2008). I en tidigare studie har oerfarna deltagare tränats i team om tre, för att bli högpresterande inom mikrovärlden C3Fire (Baroutsi, Berggren, Nählinder och Johansson, 2013). I denna mikrovärld står teammedlemmarna inför ett dynamiskt beslutsproblem - att bekämpa en skogsbrand. Rollerna i teamet är ömsesidigt beroende av varandra, vilket kräver att de samordnar och lägger upp strategier på en teamnivå för att på ett framgångsrikt sätt kunna lösa uppgiften. Dessa sex tränade team jämfördes sedan med sex otränade team i ett experiment. Flera mått användes för att bedöma teamen (CARS, DATMA, Shared Priorities, m.fl.), vilket visade att de tränade teamen skilde sig både avseende prestation, men även inom andra viktiga teamaspekter (Baroutsi, Berggren, Johansson, Nählinder, Granlund, Turcotte, & Tremblay, 2014; Berggren, Baroutsi, Johansson, Turcotte, & Tremblay, 2014; Berggren, Johansson, Baroutsi, & Dahlbäck, 2014; Berggren, Johansson, Svensson, Baroutsi, & Dahlbäck, 2014; Baroutsi, Berggren, Johansson, manuskript). Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka hur kommunikationsmönstret påverkas av dessa skillnader. Kommunikationen analyserades med hjälp av ett kodningsschema där innehållet i teamens uttalanden kategoriseras. De två olika typerna av team uppvisade ingen skillnad i antalet uttalanden, men skillnader fanns för olika kommunikationskategorier. De tränade teamen kommunicerade oftare angående sammanhanget och situationen, medan de otränade teamen oftare kommunicerade om de aktiviteter som pågick. Detta kan tolkas som en brist i den gemensamma förståelsen, styrbarheten och förutsägbarheten mellan teamets medlemmar (Klein, Feltovich & Bradshaw, 2005) hos de otränade teamen. Kommunikationsinnehållet förklarade 88,3 % av variationen i prestationen. / The Swedish Armed Forces research and development (R&D) project AVALO

There is growing interest in applying information and communication technology (ICT) in healthcare. The attention to ICT stems from several factors: costs of healthcare, high prevalence of somatic diseases, longer life expectancy and technological advancements. The quest to meet the growing healthcare needs has led authorities to allocate resources to develop technological solutions. Although this research investment is helpful for the information technology sector, these projects face challenges in working with multidisciplinary teams, recruiting participants and moving research to practice. This dissertation investigates the potential of ICT use in psychosocial support communication designed for people with emotional distress associated with a somatic disease (PEDASDs). The research aims to deliver design principles (DPs) for these ICTs, for three stakeholder groups: nurses, therapists and PEDASDs. The DPs focus on communication between these stakeholder groups and not on the overall ICT design. An interpretative approach was adopted to investigate the stakeholders’ unique ICT requirements. This method allows insights into the stakeholder’s world. Three studies, using semi-structured interviews, at oncology facilities in two healthcare system models (Trinidad & Tobago and Sweden), provide the empirical data. The stakeholders revealed not only their communication support needs but also other issues including the practical distresses of living with a chronic disease, limited support, lack of information, unwillingness to associate with other PEDASDs, professionalism between healthcare providers and disconnected healthcare services. Common ground, bridges and weak ties provide the theoretical framework to explore the findings. Eight DPs emerged from the studies: the healthcare system model, need to educate the stakeholders, ICT customisation, support of stakeholders’ information needs, allow access to external resources, support multidisciplinary team communication, support for self-care and support for significant others. The findings could potentially serve as a guide for ICT projects that develop artefacts for psychosocial support and provide a theoretically grounded understanding of stakeholder communication and relationships. The potential for future work includes investigating the issues of legislation and ethics, studying the needs of significant others, exploring the potential for ICTs in other healthcare system models (particularly the out-of-pocket health system) and examining the impact of social media on psychosocial support. / Det finns ett växande intresse att använda informations- och kommunikationsteknologi (IKT) inom hälso- och sjukvården. Intresset för IKT påverkas av flera faktorer: sjukvårdens kostnader, prevalensen av somatiska sjukdomar, ökad medellivslängd och teknologiska framsteg. Utmaningen att hantera de växande sjukvårdsbehoven har lett till att statliga myndigheter har allokerat resurser för att utveckla teknologiska lösningar. Trots att forskningsinvesteringarna gynnar informationsteknologisektorn i stort möter de konkreta forskningsprojekten utmaningar såsom arbete inom tvärvetenskapliga grupper, rekrytering av deltagare till studier samt implementering. Denna avhandling undersöker möjligheten att använda IKT för kommunikation av psykosocialt stöd eller vård (care). Detta stöd är utformat för personer med emotionella problem relaterade till en somatisk sjukdom (PEDASD). Forskningen syftar till att leverera designprinciper (DP) för tre intressegrupper som använder IKT: sjuksköterskor, terapeuter och PEDASD. Designprinciperna fokuserar på kommunikation mellan de tre intressegrupperna och inte på den övergripande IKT-designen. Ett tolkande tillvägagångssätt har använts för att undersöka intressegruppernas unika IKT-krav och önskemål. Denna metod gör det möjligt att studera intressegruppernas upplevelser. Tre undersökningar, som baseras på semistrukturerade intervjuer, har genomförts vid avdelningar för onkologisk vård inom två sjukvårdssystemmodeller i Trinidad & Tobago respektive Sverige. Studiens empiriska data utgörs av intervjuerna. Data har sedan analyserats utifrån det teoretiska ramverket: Common ground, bridges och weak ties. I sina svar nämnde intressegrupperna inte enbart deras behov av kommunikationsstöd, utan också annat som till exempel praktiska problem att leva med en kronisk sjukdom, begränsat stöd, brist på information, ovillighet att förknippas med andra PEDASD, de professionella relationerna mellan sjukvårdens olika yrkesgrupper samt avsaknaden av koordination inom sjukvården. Analysen resulterade i åtta designprinciper: sjukvårdssystemmodellen, behovet av att utbilda intressegrupperna, IKT-anpassning, stöd för intressegruppernas informationsbehov, tillgång till externa resurser, stöd för kommunikation inom tvärvetenskapliga forskargrupper, stöd för självhjälp och stöd till närstående. Resultaten har potential att fungera som en guide för IKT-forskningsprojekt som utvecklar artefakter för psykosocialt stöd och som presenterar en teoretiskt grundad förståelse av intressegruppers kommunikation och relationer. Resultaten pekar också på behovet av framtida forskning om lagstiftning och etik, nära anhörigas behov, potentialen för IKT inom andra sjukvårdssystemmodeller (i synnerhet system där patienter betalar mer själva) samt sociala mediers inverkan på psykosocialt stöd.

This dissertation is about the nature of perspectival thoughts and the context-sensitivity of the language used to express them. It focuses on two kinds of perspectival thoughts: ‘subjective' evaluative thoughts about matters of personal taste, such as 'Beetroot is delicious' or 'Skydiving is fun', and first-personal or de se thoughts about oneself, such as 'I am hungry' or 'I have been fooled.' The dissertation defends of a novel form of relativism about truth - the idea that the truth of some (but not all) perspectival thought and talk is relative to the perspective of an evaluating subject or group. In Part I, I argue that the realm of ‘subjective' evaluative thought and talk whose truth is perspective-relative includes attributions of knowledge of the form 'S knows that p.' Following a brief introduction (chapter 1), chapter 2 presents a new, error-theoretic objection against relativism about knowledge attributions. The case for relativism regarding knowledge attributions rests on the claim that relativism is the only view that explains all of the empirical data from speakers' use of the word "know" without recourse to an error theory. In chapter 2, I show that the relativist can only account for sceptical paradoxes and ordinary epistemic closure puzzles if she attributes a problematic form of semantic blindness to speakers. However, in 3 I show that all major competitor theories - forms of invariantism and contextualism - are subject to equally serious error-theoretic objections. This raises the following fundamental question for empirical theorising about the meaning of natural language expressions: If error attributions are ubiquitous, by which criteria do we evaluate and compare the force of error-theoretic objections and the plausibility of error attributions? I provide a number of criteria and argue that they give us reason to think that relativism's error attributions are more plausible than those of its competitors. In Part II, I develop a novel unified account of the content and communication of perspectival thoughts. Many relativists regarding ‘subjective' thoughts and Lewisians about de se thoughts endorse a view of belief as self-location. In chapter 4, I argue that the self-location view of belief is in conflict with the received picture of linguistic communication, which understands communication as the transmission of information from speaker's head to hearer's head. I argue that understanding mental content and speech act content in terms of sequenced worlds allows a reconciliation of these views. On the view I advocate, content is modelled as a set of sequenced worlds - possible worlds ‘centred' on a group of individuals inhabiting the world at some time. Intuitively, a sequenced world is a way a group of people may be. I develop a Stalnakerian model of communication based on sequenced worlds content, and I provide a suitable semantics for personal pronouns and predicates of personal taste. In chapter 5, I show that one of the advantages of this model is its compatibility with both nonindexical contextualism and truth relativism about taste. I argue in chapters 5 and 6 that the empirical data from eavesdropping, retraction, and disagreement cases supports a relativist completion of the model, and I show in detail how to account for these phenomena on the sequenced worlds view.

Le transporteur est tenu d’une obligation de résultat, dont l’inexécution engage automatiquement sa responsabilité, dès lors qu’il en découle un préjudice. Mais il peut se libérer de sa responsabilité en prouvant l’existence d’une cause d’exonération. Considérée comme un obstacle à l’indemnisation, l’exonération sera appréciée avec plus ou moins de méfiance, selon le mode employé et l’objet transporté. A cet égard, il convient de distinguer le transport de passagers et le transport de marchandises. La prise en compte croissante du besoin de protection du passager fait évoluer le régime auquel est soumis le transporteur. L’analyse de cette évolution est indispensable à la recherche d’un fondement commun à la responsabilité du transporteur. Considéré comme une victime, le passager devient le pivot du régime applicable au transporteur, lequel cesse d’être un régime de responsabilité. Au contraire, lorsque la responsabilité demeure, la défense exonératoire révèle le fondement rationnel de la responsabilité du transporteur : sa faute. / The carrier is under an obligation of result, the nonfulfilment of which he /she will be automatically held liable for, as soons as damage arises. Yet he can escape liablitiy if he can prove the existence of a ground for exemption. Considered as an impediment to compensation, the exemption will be assessed with more or less suspicion, depending on the transport mode and the cargo. In this respect, there should be a distinction made between the transport of passengers and goods. As the passenger’s need for protection is more and more taken into account, this causes the regime governing carriers to evolve. Analyzing these developments is essential to look for a common ground for the carrier’s liability. Considered as a victim, the passenger becomes the pivot of the regime applicable to the carrier, this regime being no longer a system of liablity. On the contrary, when liability remains, the defense based on exemption reveals the rationale behind the carrier’s liability: his fault.

Two prominent historians, David Cannadine and Brad Gregory, have recently contended that history is distorted by overemphasis on human difference and division across time and space. This problem has been acute in studies of Native-Newcomer relations, where exaggeration of Native pre-contact stability and post-contact change further emphasized Native-Newcomer difference. Although questioned in economic, social and political spheres, emphasis on cultural difference persists. To investigate the problem, this study examined the Algonquian wihtiko (windigo), an apparent exemplar of Native-Newcomer difference and division. With a focus on the James Bay Cree, this study first probed the wihtiko phenomenon’s Native origins and meanings. It then examined post-1635 Newcomer encounters with this phenomenon: from the bush to public opinion and law, especially between 1815 and 1914, and in post-1820 academia. Diverse archives, ethnographies, oral traditions, and academic texts were consulted. The cannibal wihtiko evolved from Algonquian attempts to understand and control rare but extreme mental and moral failures in famine contexts. It attained mythical proportions, but fears of wihtiko possession, transformation and violence remained real enough to provoke pre-emptive killings even of family members. Wihtiko beliefs also influenced Algonquian manifestations and interpretations of generic mental and moral failures. Consciously or not, others used it to scapegoat, manipulate, or kill. Newcomers threatened by moral and mental failures attributed to the wihtiko often took Algonquian beliefs and practices seriously, even espousing them. Yet Algonquian wihtiko behaviours, beliefs and practices sometimes presented Newcomers with another layer of questions about mental and moral incompetence. Collisions arose when they discounted, misconstrued or asserted control over Algonquian beliefs and practices. For post-colonial critics, this has raised a third layer of questions about intellectual and moral incompetence. Yet some critics have also misconstrued earlier attempts to understand and control the wihtiko, or attributed an apparent lack of scholarly consensus to Western cultural incompetence or inability to grasp the wihtiko. In contrast, this study of wihtiko phenomena reveals deeper commonalities and continuities. They are obscured by the complex evolution of Natives’ and Newcomers’ struggles to understand and control the wihtiko. Yet hidden in these very struggles and the wihtiko itself is a persistent shared conviction that reducing others to objects of power signals mental and moral failure. The wihtiko reveals cultural differences, changes and divisions, but exemplifies more fundamental commonalities and continuities.

Syftet med studien är att presentera ett designkoncept för publika diskussioner på nätet med målet att uppnå djupare diskussioner och minska mängden information overload. Arbetet använder metoden Concept Driven Interaction Design (CDID) som går ut på att skapa ett designkoncept utifrån flera olika teorier som appliceras genom interaktionsdesign. Ett designkoncept innehåller tre delar: ett namn, ett syfte och huvudprinciper. CDID innehåller sju steg som arbetet är utformat efter: 1.      Concept Generation – Summeras i en tabell som jämför diskussioner i forum (med flera antagande) och diskussioner med hjälp av metoden Philosophy for Children (P4C), samt annan teori. 2.      Concept Exploration – Åtta olika designaspekter identifieras utifrån jämförelsetabellen. 3.      Internal Concept Critique – Designaspekterna jämförs med två snarlika diskussionsformat. 4.      Design of Artifacts – Designkoncept version 1 skapas. 5.      External Design Critique – Intervjuer utförs för att undersöka intervjupersonerna generella erfarenheter av online diskussioner, testar antagandena från jämförelsetabellen och ge direkt feedback på första versionen av designkonceptet. 6.      Concept Revisited – Ändringar görs baserat på intervjumaterial och direkt feedback. 7.      Concept Contextualization – Designkonceptet kopplas tillbaka till litteraturen. Studien resulterar i ett designkoncept kallat CoFramer och stödjer dessa huvudprinciper som ställs i kontrast till material som identifierats genom intervjuerna: Tabell 1: CoFramers huvudprinciper och faktorer från intervjuer om diskussioner på forum. CoFramers huvudprinciper | Från intervjuer om diskussioner på forum Strukturerad början och slut | Diskussion utan tydligt slut Begränsat antal deltagare | Stor mängd deltagare Minimum antal deltagare | Många inaktiva åskådare Explicita deltagare | Lite information om deltagare Gemensamma förutsättningar | Otydlighet kring deltagares förutsättningar Begränsad informationstäthet per inlägg | Långa inlägg och/eller snabba inlägg Den röda tråden och parallella trådar | Oftast parallella trådar Aktiv samtalsledare | Outredda missförstånd Studien indikerar på att CoFramer bör resultera i mer strukturerade diskussioner och som utsätter användaren för en lägre mängd information overload och mindre grounding cost jämfört med vad som vanligtvis uppstår i publika diskussioner online. / The focus of this essay is to develop a design concept for online public discussions with deep discussions and low information overload. The method used is Concept Driven Interaction Design (CDID) which involves constructing a design concept by applying a variety of theories in tangible interaction design. A design concept has three basic parts: a name, high-level goals and outlines generic principles. CDID includes seven steps which is used in this work: 1.      Concept Generation – Formatted into a table that compare forum discussion (with several hypothesis) compared to discussions with the method Philosophy for Children (P4C) and other theories. 2.      Concept Exploration – Eight distinct design aspects are identified from the comparison table. 3.      Internal Concept Critique – The design aspects are compared to three similar discussion formats. 4.      Design of Artifacts – Design concept version 1 is created. 5.      External Design Critique – Interviews are conducted to explore their general experience of online discussions, investigate the hypothesis from the comparison table and to seek direct feedback on the first draft of the design concept. 6.      Concept Revisited – Changes are made to the design concept based on the interview material and the direct feedback. 7.      Concept Contextualization – The design concept is related to the original literature. The result of the study is a design concept named CoFramer. CoFramer’s generic principles are summarized and contrasted against factors identified from the interview material in this table: Tabell 2: CoFramer’s generic principles and interviews about online discussions. CoFramer’s generic principles | From interview material on forum discussion Organized start and ending | Discussions without clear ending Limited number of participants | Large number of participants Minimum number of participants | Large number of inactive spectators Explicit participants | Low information about participants Common conditions | Vagueness in participants conditions Limited information density per post | Long posts and/or fast posts The red thread and parallel threads | Often parallel threads Active facilitator | Unresolved misunderstandings The study indicates that CoFramer would create more structured discussions with a lower amount of information overload and less grounding cost compared what normally arise in public online discussions.