The meaning of success in conversation depends on people's goals. Often, individuals pursue multiple goals simultaneously, such as establishing shared understanding, making a favorable impression, having fun, or persuading a conversation partner. In this article, we introduce a novel theoretical framework, the Conversational Circumplex, to classify conversational motives along two key dimensions: 1) informational: the extent to which a speaker's motive focuses on giving and/or receiving accurate information; and 2) relational: the extent to which a speaker's motive focuses on building the relationship. We use the Conversational Circumplex to underscore the multiplicity of conversational goals that people hold and highlight the potential for individuals to have conflicting conversational goals (both intrapersonally and interpersonally) that make successful conversation a difficult challenge.

谈话成功的意义取决于人们的目标。通常，个人会同时追求多个目标，例如建立共同的理解、给人留下好印象、玩得开心或说服谈话伙伴。在本文中，我们介绍了一种新颖的理论框架，即对话圈，将对话动机从两个关键维度进行分类： 1）信息性：说话者的动机集中在提供和/或接收准确信息的程度；和 2)关系：说话者的动机集中在建立关系上的程度。我们使用对话圈来强调人们持有的多种对话目标，并强调个人有可能产生相互冲突的对话目标（包括个人内部和人际关系），这使得成功的对话成为一项艰巨的挑战。