Using English for commonsense knowledge

The work reported here arises from an attempt to provide a body of simple information about diet and its effect on various common medical conditions. Expressing this knowledge in natural language has a number of advantages. It also raises a number of difficult issues. We will consider solutions, and partial solutions, to these issues below. 1 Commonse knowledge Suppose you wanted to have a system that could provide advice about what you should and should not eat if you suffer from various common medical conditions. You might expect, at the very least, to be able to have dialogues like (1). (1) a. User: I am allergic to eggs. Computer: OK User: Should I eat pancakes Computer: No, because pancakes contain eggs, and eating things which contain eggs will make you ill if you are allergic to eggs. b. User: My son is very fat. Computer: OK User: Should he go swimming. Computer: Yes, because swimming is a form of exercise, and exercise is good for people who are overweight. c. User: I have scurvy. Computer: OK User: Is eating berries good for me? Computer: Yes, because berries contain vitamin C and eating fruit which contains vitamin C is good for people who scurvy.