Ebook: Language at Work: Analyzing Communication Breakdown in the Workplace to Inform Systems Design

Center for the Study of Language. 1996. — 212 p. — ISBN: 1575860503 | PDF | | 11,4 mbPeople are very creative in their use of language. This observation was made convincingly by Chomsky in the 1950s and is generally accepted in the scientific communities concerned with the study of language. Computers, on the other hand, are neither creative, flexible, nor adaptable. This is in spite of the fact that their ability to process language is based largely on the grammars developed by linguists and computer scientists. Thus, there is a mismatch between the observed human creativity and our ability as theorists to explain it.ContentsPrologue: Understanding information
The fine power of a culture
Crossing the boundaries
Situation theory
Whose mother is it?
Sacks, norms, and mathematics
LFZ analysis
The PRF at work
Interpreting the PRF