ylfink@water.UUCP (ylfink) (09/30/86)
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SEMINAR
- Thursday, October 2, 1986.
Professor Robin Cohen of this department will speak on
``An Incremental Model for Discourse Analysis''.
TIME: 1:30 PM
ROOM: CHEM2 RM 079
ABSTRACT
We propose a processing model for analyzing
discourse with the following properties: (i) deter-
mining the plan of the speaker (intentional
structure) drives the process (ii) the analysis
is incremental - each new utterance is interpreted
and a representation successively built (iii) the
process is fine-grained - the main decision is
discerning the "purpose" of each utterance, its func-
tion with respect to the overall plan of the
speaker. We then provide definitions for the "pur-
pose" of an utterance, leading to proposed operations
for the model.
The model is intended to provide a basis for
interpreting goal- oriented discourse where possi-
ble underlying plans may not be available before-
hand. The case where the top level goal is "get the
hearer to believe p" is used for illustration, but
goals of action and informing are also discussed. In
particular, the model can be shown to provide a pos-
sible basis of processing for the model of Grosz and
Sidner.