Hearer-Focus Cues to a Target

A hearer-focus cue is a cue metacognitively available to a hearer indicating that her own current object of attention may be the speaker’s intended target. In the sequence leading to its use, the hearer first observably directs her attention to some phenomenon. This is her focusing behavior. The speaker then observes this behavior, determines the phenomenon she is focusing on, proceeds to perceive that phenomenon himself, and produces an utterance with a trigger to target it. On hearing the trigger, the hearer is alerted to look for cues to its target. She ends up accepting the possibility that her own focus of attention is the speaker’s intended target, especially if other cue categories are poorly represented. Parameters along which this procedure can vary include the sensory modality of the phenomenon that the hearer is focusing on; the hearer’s reason for focusing on it; whether the hearer does or does not anticipate the phenomenon