Chapter 7 concludes the monograph with a summary of the lessons learned from previous scholarship on interactional language and how the Interactional Spine Hypothesis incorporates these lessons and insights. It is shown that a formal approach toward interactional language of this type allows for the development of a typology of interactional language, something that is currently missing in the literature. Potential cognitive underpinnings of the Interactional Spine Hypothesis are discussed and introduced as a new research agenda that has the potential to shed light on the old question regarding the relation between language, thought, and communication. Finally the chapter concludes with an outlook of potential novel research avenues to pursue in light of the Interactional Spine Hypothesis. This includes logophors, genre and style, information structure, the role of intonation, and the relation between speech act and clause-types.

Chapter 1 introduces the empirical domain (interactional language) as well as the Interactional Spine Hypothesis and broadly situates it within the state of the art. It is shown that for the calculation of utterance interpretation, propositional meaning is not sufficient. Rather it is important to take the speaker’s intention into consideration as well as the addressee’s knowledge state. This sets the stage for the development of the interactional spine throughout the monograph.