Social Consequences of Common Ground

Abstract

This chapter argues that the management of information in communication is never without social consequence and that many of the details of communicative practice are therefore dedicated to the management of social affiliation in human relationships. It proposes that the practices by which we manage and exploit common ground in interaction demonstrate a personal commitment to particular relationships and particular communities, and a studied attention to the practical and strategic requirements of human sociality. Common ground constitutes the open stockpile of shared presumption that fuels amplicative inference in communication, driven by intention attribution and other defining components of the interaction engine. Common ground—knowledge openly shared by specified pairs, trios, and so forth—is by definition socially relational, and relationship defining. In an informational dimension, common ground guides the design of signals by particular speakers for particular recipients, as well as the proper interpretation by particular recipients, of signals from particular speakers.

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