An Integrative Research Strategy for Exploring Synergies in Natural Language Performance

I argue that a synthetic explanatory strategy is an important step forward for developing a more comprehensive understanding of human language, in particular natural language performance. By considering some statistical definitions of the notion of synergy, I argue that we should expect very low-level units of measure, such as voice or body movement, to predict higher-level units of measure, such as complex linguistic functions like discourse. It would be useful to tie the structured behavior at this low level to high-level constraints, such as discourse goals. I refer to this as an “integrative strategy” to getting the synthetic approach going, and I briefly sketch our preliminary methods in conducting this integration across different time scales.