There are many ways in which a conversation can break down, and as a result there are many types of repair. From a linguistic point of view, here are some of the most common triggers of a repair pattern. The response to each type will depend on content and use case.
What?
I don’t get it
That’s not what I asked
What is pronation?
What is a cross-trainer?
What did you say?
Can you repeat that?
Size 10 what?
What do you mean?
Can you say that another way?
What are my options?
What shoe brands do you carry other than Nike?
Delectable means delicious?
Flan is a dessert?
A pizza with pineapple and papaya?
Self-correction: “What sizes are the boots- er- shoes available in?”
Other-correction:
A: They’re gonna drive back Wednesday.
B: Tomorrow.
A: Right, tomorrow.
A: How much do the Nikes in size 7 cost?
B: The Nike Air Max in size 7 costs $100.
A: Oh I thought those were $80.
B: The Nike Air in size 7 costs $80.
A: Oh okay.
I didn’t hear that
User-initiated vs. agent-initiated repair (who triggers repair?)
User-repair vs. agent-repair (who fixes the problem?)
Repair sequencing: What if an initial repair doesn’t work? How can you combine them? Looping through different repair strategies, fallback options, scaling up to agent-transfer.
There could be different fallback strategies. Perhaps, a definition request could be answered, but if that doesn’t work, then use the general repair strategy, and if that doesn’t work, offer to transfer. Alternatively, a user could say a general “I don’t get it”, to which you could respond with a paraphrase.
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