Two Ways of Defining Communication Strategies

Two recently formulated definitions of communication strategies are contrasted. According to Tarone's “interactional” definition, the central function of communication strategies is the negotiation of meaning. According to the “psycholinguistic” definition suggested by Færch and Kasper. communication strategies are related to individual language users' experience of communicative problems and the solutions (cooperative or noncooperative) they pursue. Within the latter framework, communication strategies are characterized in discourse terms, invoking the notion of “conditional relevance.” It is demonstrated that interactionally defined communication strategies constitute a subset of psycholinguistically defined strategies, and it is argued that although this subset in many respects represents an important area of strategy use. significant similarities to other types of strategy use are obscured by defining communication strategies in interactional terms exclusively.