Dialogue Acts in the AusTalk Map Tasks

This paper reports on the analysis of 12 Map Task dialogues from the AusTalk corpus, which were annotated for Dialogue Acts. We describe the annotation process, including the modifications to the SWBD-DAMSL coding scheme, and present the results of an analysis of the number, complexity, and function of turns across conversation role (Information Giver or Follower), gender, and gender dyad. Significant differences are found depending on the gender and role of the speakers and on the gender dyad. Overall, female speakers produce more turns than male speakers, and female-female dyads produce more multiple-label and mixed function turns.