A Short Note on Opportunistic Planning and Memory in Arguments

Engaging in an argument is a complex task of natural language processing that involves understanding an opponent's utterances, discovering what his "point" is, determining whether his claims are believable, and fashioning a coherent rebuttal. Accomplishing these tasks requires the coordination of many different abilities and many different kinds of knowledge. Because arguing, and conversation generally, involve real-time interaction with another agent, this coordination must be even more flexible than is required for other natural language processing tasks. An arguer must have some expectations about what his opponent might say, but must also be able to respond to the unexpected. He must have some idea of the claims he wants to make, and plans for putting them forward, but his opponent may confound these plans. Or, more positively, his opponent may say something that offers an unforeseen opportunity to make a point. Arguing thus exemplifies the need for a flexible mix of topdown and bottom-up processing in both language understanding and production.