Negotiating the Semantics of Agent Communication Languages

This paper presents a formal framework and outlines a method that autonomous agents can use to negotiate the semantics of their communication language at run-time. Such an ability is needed in open multi-agent systems so that agents can ensure they understand the implications of the utterances that are being made and so that they can tailor the meaning of the primitives to best fit their prevailing circumstances. To this end, the semantic space framework provides a systematic means of classifying the primitives along multiple relevant dimensions. This classification can then be used by the agents to structure their negotiation (or semantic fixing) process so that they converge to the mutually agreeable semantics that are necessary for coherent social interactions.