Developing a Model for the Representation and Function of Discourse Structure in a Natural Language Consulting System

Discourse structure is concerned with how the parts of a text relate together to convey meaning. In task-oriented dialogues, such as those which occur in the domain of Vie-DU , a NL consulting system designed to provide information on the granting of subsidies for house improvements, the structure of discourse corresponds strongly with the goals and intentions of the agents involved in the interaction, while its function is to provide su cient information to allow agents to determine how their partner's actions contribute to the current task. In this paper a model is presented for a dynamic representation of discourse, in which the text is seen as playing a role as mediator between an agent's goals and intentions (the agent's intentional structure) and what she believes is the public view of these same goals and intentions (the conversational record). The process of mediation is performed by two kinds of inference rules: plan strategies and collaborative strategies, whereby the former are used to respond to a CP's domain goals and the latter to discourse goals by satisfying the principle of Informativity. The model is formulated in the situation semantics framework. Garner | REPRESENTATION AND FUNCTION OF DISCOURSE STRUCTURE 1