Biblioteka Cyfrowa KLF UW (Digital Library of the Formal Linguistics Department at the University of Warsaw)

Wilks, Yorick

Bień, Janusz S.

SPEECH ACTS AND MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTS 
Y o r i c k W i l ks 
Department of Language 
& L i n g u i s t i c s 
U n i v e r s i t y o f Essex 
C o l c h e s t e r , England 
Janusz B ien 
I n f o r m a t i c s I n s t i t u t e 
U n i v e r s i t y of Warsaw 
Warsaw, Poland 
Th is b r i e f paper o u t l i n e s j o i n t work t h a t i m p l i e s a v iew o f the e x p l i c a t i o n o f Speech Acts 
d i f f e r e n t f rom those c u r r e n t i n A l . I t i s e x p l o r a t o r y a t p r e s e n t , bu t w e i n t e n d t h a t i t shou ld 
lead to programs as soon as p o s s i b l e . We propose a system t h a t engages in d i a l ogue w i t h a 
human user so as to d iscuss o t h e r s and in do ing so , i n t e r p r e t s the a p p r o p r i a t e communicat ive 
f o r ce o f the u s e r ' s u t t e r a n c e s . The t h ree key f e a t u r e s o f the e x p l i c a t i o n o f communicat ive 
f o r c e presented a r e : 
1 . m u l t i p l e env i ronments : the a b i l i t y t o i n t e r p r e t an express ion o r a d e s c r i p t i o n r e l a t i v e 
to some p a r t i c u l a r knowledge, e . g . r e l a t i v e to the b e l i e f s o f one person about ano the r . I t i s 
a g e n e r a l i z a t i o n o f the computer sc ience approach to exp ress ion e v a l u a t i o n , us ing the n o t i o n 
o f an envi ronment to f i x the i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f names o c c u r r i n g i n the e x p r e s s i o n . 
2 . dua l knowledge r e p r e s e n t a t i o n : an " e x p e r i e n t i a l " r e p r e s e n t a t i o n is used to memorize 
sentences or o t h e r episodes ( e x e m p l i f i e d by p s e u d o - t e s t s , or PTs) , w h i l e a f rame- type 
r e p r e s e n t a t i o n is used to memorize knowledge needed more g e n e r a l l y f o r r eason ing . 
3 . a l e a s t e f f o r t p r i n c i p l e of u n d e r s t a n d i n g : cons idered to be a language u n i v e r s a l , which 
r e q u i r e s (a) t h a t the system m a i n t a i n as much r e p r e s e n t a t i o n as p o s s i b l e in the f r a m e - l i k e 
f o rms , r a t h e r than in PTs, and (b) t h a t the system m a i n t a i n a h i g h l y redundant r e p r e s e n t a t i o n 
in the PTs, ach ieved by a process we c a l l p e r c o l a t i o n of b e l i e f . 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Speech Acts (SAs) o r i g i n a t e d as a n o t i o n in 
ph i l osophy [1] , [9] much p reoccup ied w i t h 
the l o g i c a l p r o p e r t i e s o f sentences l i k e " I 
promise to pay you f i v e pounds" and, l a t e r , 
w i t h access to the i n t e n t i o n s in a speake r ' s 
head. L i n g u i s t s worked w i t h these n o t i o n s 
subsequent ly b u t , l i k e A l w o r k e r s , they have 
added l i t t l e t h a t i s d i s t i n c t i v e t o the 
o r i g i n a l p e r c e p t i o n t h a t u t t e r a n c e s have a 
d i s t i n c t i v e communicat ive f o r c e (as a t h r e a t , 
a p romise , a w a r n i n g , e t c . ) , i n a d d i t i o n to 
l i t e r a l c o n t e n t . We b e l i e v e t ha t an Al approach 
t o t h i s area t h a t i s t o c o n t r i b u t e 
d i s t i n c t i v e l y w i l l have to make use o f genera l 
p r i n c i p l e s concern ing the env i ronmen ta l 
embedding of b e l i e f s , e t c . , as w e l l as a l e a s t 
e f f o r t maxim f o r t h e i r m a n i p u l a t i o n . The f i r s t 
of t h e s e , advocated by B ien in 1975 [2] , has 
been used by Cohen [5] and o the rs of the 
Toron to g roup , bu t t he d i s t i n c t i v e f e a t u r e we 
d iscuss here concerns the maintenance and 
change of such env i ronments under a genera l 
requ i rement o f c o g n i t i v e e f f i c i e n c y . 
2. TIRESIAS 
We propose a system ab le to engage in a l i m i t e d 
c o n v e r s a t i o n w i t h a human use r : l e t us c a l l I t 
TIRESIAS f o r a reason t h a t w i l l appear. The 
t o p i c of the c o n v e r s a t i o n would be the 
r e l a t i o n s h i p s of a group of f r i e n d s (see [7]) 
known in v a r y i n g degrees to both TIRESIAS and 
the use r . We expect sample d ia logues such as : 
$1 USER: Frank is coming tomorrow, I t h i n k . 
TIRESIAS: Perhaps I shou ld l e a v e . $2 
$3 
U 
T 
U 
T 
Why? 
Coming f rom you , $1 is a t h r e a t . 
Does Frank ha te you? 
I d o n ' t know-but you t h i n k he does, and 
t h a t i s what i s impo r t an t r i g h t now. 
The impor tan t f e a t u r e we r e q u i r e here is 
TIRESIAS' a b i l i t y t o eva lua te i t s d e s c r i p t i o n s 
o f persons d i f f e r e n t l y i n d i f f e r e n t environments 
Thus, a t $ 1 , TIRESIAS d e t e c t s a t h r e a t (not in 
i t s e l f n e c e s s a r i l y i n t e r e s t i n g ) o n the bas i s 
o f e v a l u a t i n g i t s r e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f i t s e l f , 
i n s i d e t h a t o f F rank , i n s i d e t h a t o f the u s e r , 
wh ich we might w r i t e (g i ven t h a t [P ] i s the 
d a t a - s t r u c t u r e f o r P i n s i d e Q, t h a t i s , Qs 
model o f P ) : 
968 
969 
done l a t e l y , a n d , i f i t h a d , i t n e e d no t b e 
done a g a i n , s i n c e the r e l e v a n t b e l i e f s , Frank 
d i s l i k e s T i r e s i a s i n t h i s c a s e , wou ld a l r e a d y 
have p e r c o l a t e d i n t o i t . One may n o t i c e t h a t 
such p e r c o l a t i o n s , i f t hey e x i s t , deny t he 
whole b a s i s o f i n t e n s i o n a l l o g i c ( t h e d e n i a l o f 
p b e l i e v e s x -> x ) , but seem c o n s i s t e n t w i t h 
common sense , and more t e c h n i c a l l y w i t h the 
s leepe r e f f ec t s [ 6 ] , t he i n f e r e n c e o f b e l i e f s 
f rom u n r e l i a b l e s o u r c e s . 
I t s h o u l d no t be emphasized t h a t we are no t 
t r e s p a s s i n g i n t o p o s s i b l e w o r l d s : f o r they 
r e q u i r e the ass ignment o f a l l v a r i a b l e s . I n 
t he r e c u r s i v e p u s h i n g down of PTs we env isage 
o n l y r e l e v a n t b e l i e f s w i l l b e r e s e t . I t i s 
c e r t a i n l y t r u e , however , t h a t these s u g g e s t i o n s 
w i l l imp inge on the area on i n t e n s i o n a l l o g i c 
(see [2] and, of c o u r s e , T i r e s i a s in the 
Greek myth was the seer who knew t h a t J o c a s t a 
was the mother of Oedipus (who knew t h a t 
J o c a s t a was t he w i f e o f O e d i p u s , and even t h a t 
J o c a s t a was J o c a s t a , but NOT t h a t key f a c t 
known to T i r e s i a s ) . But t h e r e i s no space to 
e x p l o r e these c o n n e x i o n s , a l t h o u g h we do 
b e l i e v e t h a t even the s i m p l e c o n s i d e r a t i o n s se t 
ou t here c o u l d l e a d to a r i c h e r p r o c e d u r a l 
e x p l i c a t i o n o f SAs than those c u r r e n t i n A I . 
REFERENCES 
(1) J . L . A u s t i n , " P e r f o r m a t i v e u t t e r a n c e s " ( 1 9 6 1 ) 
P h i l o s o p h i c a l P a p e r s . O x f o r d . 
(2) J . S . B i e n , "Towards a m u l t i p l e env i ronment 
model o f n a t u r a l l a n g u a g e " P roc . IJCA1 4 , ( 1 9 7 5 ) 
237 -240 . 
(3) J . S . B i e n , " C o m p u t a t i o n a l e x p l i c a t i o n o f 
i n t e n s i o n a l i t y " i n A . J . C . L . M i c r o f i c h e . No. 9 7 , 
( 1 9 7 6 ) . 
(4) H. C l a r k &. C. M a r s h a l l , " D e f i n i t e Reference 
and Mutua l Know ledge" , S loan Workshop, P e n n s y l ­
v a n i a , May 1978. 
(5) P. Cohen, " P l a n n i n g Speech A c t s " Ph .D. 
T h e s i s , Dep t . Computer S c i e n c e , U n i v . To ron to 
( 1 9 7 8 ) . 
(6) C . Cruder e t a l . "The a b s o l u t e s l e e p e r 
e f f e c t " P e r s o n a l i t y and S o c i a l P s y c h o l o g y , 36, 
1978, 1061-1073 . 
(7) P. Hayes & M. Rosner , " U l l y " . P r o c . A I3 B 
C o n f . , E d i n b u r f t 1976 , 4 6 - 4 9 . 
(8) M. M i n s k y , " M a t t e r , Mind and Mode ls " in 
Bobrow ( e d . ) Semant ic I n f o r m a t i o n P r o c e s s i n g , 
MIT , 1968, 2 0 3 - 4 3 . 
(9) J . S e a r l e , Speech A c t s , O x f o r d , 1969. 
(10) Y . W i l k s , " A p r e f e r e n t i a l p a t t e r n - s e e k i n g 
s e m a n t i c s , A r t i f i c i a l I n t e l l i g e n c e , 6 , 1975, 
5 3 - 7 4 . 
(11) Y . W i l k s , "Mak ing p r e f e r e n c e s more a c t i v e " , 
A r t i f i c i a l I n t e l l i g e n c e , 1 1 , 1978, 197-223 . 
970 


English

Speech acts and multiple environments

Saloni, Zygmunt

Концепция морфологического слова

Bibliografia Instytutu Informatyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego za rok 1978

Informator Instytutu Informatyki UW za rok 1977

Bibliografia Instytutu Informatyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego za rok 1977

Institute of Informatics Annual Report 1977

Szpakowicz, Stanisław

Bolc, Leonard

Madey, Jan

Bootstrapping methodology of computational linguistics research

Lingwistyka informatyczna we Francji

Wielośrodowiskowy model języka naturalnego

Wstępne przetwarzanie tekstów w procesie automatycznego indeksowania (streszczenie)

University of Warsaw

Not a member yet