Partner Orientation and Speaker's Knowledge as Conflicting Parameters in Language Production

Two parameters of language production, the partner model and the mentally represented knowledge about a spatial constellation, are investigated with respect to their influence on spatial reference. At issue is whether the verbally expressed point of view in route directions is primarily influenced by the needs of the partner or by the underlying mental representation of the speaker stemming from his or her own experience with an object. Two experiments in which participants (N = 90) were asked to produce a set of route directions are reported. The experimental situation was such that the point of view of the speaker did not correspond to the point of view of the partner. The results show that more participants localize from their own point of view than from the point of view of the partner. Discussion centers on the fact that speakers do not always behave in a truly partner-oriented manner.