Interactive alignment in Polish: A CMC-based study

One of the focuses of psycholinguistic research has been producing and understanding language (c.f. Griffin and Ferreira 2006; Pardo and Remez 2006). Until very recently (Bock 1986), such research primarily concerned understanding or producing isolated sentences or words. However, using language in isolation constitutes a minor part of how people interact. In response, Pickering and Garrod proposed the interactive alignment model, which is supposed to explain the processes which are engaged in comprehension and production in dialogue. This paper addresses the issue of the interactive alignment model in Polish in computer-mediated communication. The article first outlines the theoretical background for the research by describing the semantic and syntactic aspects of language production and comprehension. Next, it introduces the concept of the interactive alignment model and lays down its main tenets. Finally, the paper describes the research method and the qualitative analysis of the results of the experiment conducted for the purposes of the study.