Other-Relatedness in Language Processing

Abstract

Addressee-orientation or, more generally, other-relatedness must be considered a basic feature of language-in-use. Nevertheless, this feature has been largely neglected in language studies, mainly in experimental psycholinguistics. This neglect was one of the reasons for the foundation of the Heidelberg/Mannheim Research Group on Language Processing in Social Context (LISCO), whose major topic is the other-relatedness of speech and of language comprehension. Examples of this research and of the guiding theories are given as an introduction to this Special Issue which contains six reports on the work of the LISCO group plus an invited comment by Robert M. Krauss.