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<Paper uid="W02-0224">
  <Title>Grounding styles of aged dyads: an exploratory study</Title>
  <Section position="6" start_page="2" end_page="2" type="concl">
    <SectionTitle>
5 Conclusion
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> As a pilot study of the grounding styles of older dyads, we analyzed dialogue data featuring both older and younger dyads, and identified a certain contrast in grounding style that separates the two groups fairly clearly. In the style associated with older dyads, people use more dedicated acknowledgements than dual-functional ones, use more general-purpose acknowledgements than special-purpose ones, and use relatively many post-grounding acknowledgements. In the style associated with younger dyads, the opposite tendencies on the use of acknowledgements hold.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> On the basis of this contrast, we also discussed the implications of the adoption of the first grounding style, and conjectured that some of the negative stereotypes about conversations with older people may be based on this grounding style they adopt.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> Certainly, as the result of an exploratory study, all these observations are purely hypothetical. We only hope that this study has provided enough materials to set a stage for a further, more controlled comparison of grounding styles of older and younger dyads.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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