Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to investigate the indirect modes of communication in natural dialogs. The present paper clarifies, among others, the following indirect communicative modes: (i) inferential indirect mode, (ii) context-dependent indirect mode, (iii) metonymic indirect mode, and (iv) metaphorical indirect mode. It is shown that these modes of communication constitute the core part of the underlying mechanism of communication of natural dialogs. A wide range of dialog examples (in English and Japanese novels and plays) are analyzed as empirical evidence to clarify the communicative modes of (i)〜(iv) mentioned above.
