[Schegloff1992] describes the behavior of agents when a misunderstanding occurs and identifies different types of repairs. He also implicitly supports the idea that misunderstandings can be distinguished according to which type of information is actually misinterpreted; for example, an incorrect identification of the referent of a description represents a different level phenomenon with respect to an incorrect identification of the intended speech act, or of the plan underlying the interaction.
In Schegloff's description, third position repair corresponds to the cases where the misunderstood agent realizes that the partner has a wrong interpretation and urges him to restructure it. For example, consider turn T4 in the following interaction ([Schegloff1992], page 1317):
Example 1:
T1: Dan:
``... See Al tends, it seems, to pull in one or two individuals on
his side
[...]''
T2: Al: ``W'l''
T3: Roger: ``Well so do I.''
T4: Dan: ``Yeah. I'm not criticizing, I mean we'll just ... ''
T5: Roger: ``Oh you wanna talk about him"
T6: Dan: ``look, let's just talk''
In the example, Dan realizes that he has been
misunderstood by Roger and provides him with the intended
interpretation of his own previous sentence by performing a third position
repair in turn T4: in this way, he urges Roger to change his interpretation of
the dialogue.
In fourth position repair,
a speaker A produces a turn that is
misunderstood by B, who replies with another turn, sequentially
appropriate
to his own (wrong) understanding of the first turn. A doesn't realize that the two interpretations are not aligned any more and responds with a further turn, coherent in A's view of dialogue. At this point, B understands his own mistake, restructures his own interpretation accordingly and informs the partner about the realignment. For example ([Schegloff1992], page 1321):
Example 2:
T1: Marty: ``Loes, do you have a calendar,''
T2: Loes: ``Yeah'' ((reaches for her desk calendar))
T3: Marty: ``Do you have one that hangs on the wall?''
T4: Loes: ``Oh, you want one.''
T5: Marty: ``Yeah''
The recognition that a misunderstanding has occurred is triggered by the lack of coherence between the interpretation of the misunderstood turn and that of the subsequent turns. Having misinterpreted, in fact, the hearer gives his contribution to dialogue in a way that is coherent in his wrong interpretation, but not from the point of view of his partner's intended meaning.