phyllis@utcsrgv.UUCP (Phyllis Eve Bregman) (02/20/84)
YORK UNIVERSITY
Department of Computer Science
Computer Science Seminar
DATE: Wednesday, February 22, 1984
TIME: 3:45-500 P.M.
PLACE: 118 Winters College, York University
SPEAKER: Robin Cohen
Department of Computer Science
University of Toronto
TITLE: A Computational Model for the Analysis of Arguments
ABSTRACT:
This research proposes a model for an argument understanding system--a
natural language understanding system which processes arguments. The
form of input considered is one-way communication in a conversational
setting, where the speaker tries to convince the hearer of a particular
point of view. The main contributions are: (i) a theory of expected
coherent structure which limits analysis to the reconstruction of
particular transmission forms (ii) a theory of linguistic clues which
assigns a functional interpretation to special words and phrases used
by the speaker to indicate structure (iii) a theory of evidence relationships
which includes the demand for pragmatic analysis to accommodate beliefs
not currently held. A system designed to incorporate these theories could
be used to analyze the structure of arguments--the necessary first step
for a hearer, before judging credibility and responding.
--
Phyllis Eve Bregman
CSRG, Univ. of Toronto
{decvax,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,allegra,utzoo}!utcsrgv!phyllis