| Communication is a goal-oriented activity where interlocutors use language as a means to achieve an end while taking into account the goals and plans of others. Game theory, being the scientific study of strategically interactive decision-making, provides the mathematical tools for modeling language use among rational decision makers. When we speak of language use, it is obvious that questions arise about what someone knows and what someone believes. Such a treatment of statements as moves in a language game has roots in the philosophy of language and in economics. In the first, the idea is prominent with the work of Strawson, later Wittgenstein, Austin, Grice, and Lewis. In the second, the work of Crawford, Sobel, Rabin, and Farrell.;We supplement the traditional model of signaling games with the following innovations: We consider the effect of the relationship whether close or distant among players. We consider the role that ethical considerations may play in communication. And finally, in our most significant innovation, we introduce an audience whose presence affects the sender's signal and/or the receiver's response. In our model, we no longer assume that the entire structure of the game is common knowledge as some of the priorities of the players and relationships among some of them might not be known to the other players. |
