This paper presents a theoretical approach to the characterization of requests boundaries and structure in general spoken dialogue. Emphasis is laid on the fracture between the illocutionary act of requesting (for which the term ‘request’ is kept) and the locutionary elements that carry it out (its ‘instantiation’). This approach leads to a representation of requests based on the inclusion of a...

Quality of modeling for information systems analysis and design is an important field of research in which, however, a comprehensive and generally acknowledged understanding is still outstanding. Notions of “model” and “quality” often remain vague and focus on particular aspects such as “syntax” or “semantics” rather than a comprehensive perspective on model quality. In this paper we argue that...

Quality of modeling for information systems analysis and design is an important field of research in which, however, a comprehensive and generally acknowledged understanding is still outstanding. Notions of “model” and “quality” often remain vague and focus on particular aspects such as “syntax” or “semantics” rather than a comprehensive perspective on model quality. In this paper we argue that...

Broad Research Program My philosophical research aims to develop a general theory of pragmatic embodied epistemology. Pragmatic embodied epistemology is the philosophical investigation of the possibility conditions and normative principles for embodied agents to represent their world and to utilize the representations in their interactions with the world. Pragmatic embodied epistemology differs...

Intersentential elliptical utterances occur frequently during information-seeking dialogs in task domains. This paper presents a pragmatics-based framework for interpreting such utterances. Discourse expectations and focusing heuristics are used to facilitate recognition of an information-seeker's intent in uttering an elliptical fragment. The ellipsis is comprehended by identifying both the as...

Web-based collaborative systems are potentially a rich source of knowledge for lifelong learning and professional development. In these systems, practitioners can share messages about their problems on daily work activities. These messages can also be used for analytical purposes, e.g., for understanding the development of a discussion as well as for evaluating how a system supports different t...

Research on L2 learners’ success at development and appropriate use of pragmatic ability and knowledge has mostly approached the issue from a cognitive or social perspective, and less attention has been devoted to the problem from the equally important emotional or individual-psychological lenses. This study sought to explore, first, the interplay between Iranian advanced EFL learners’ pragmati...

Spoken natural language often contains ambiguities that must be addressed by a spoken dialogue system. In this work, we present the internal semantic representation and resolution strategy of a dialogue system designed to understand ambiguous input. These mechanisms are domain independent; task-specific knowledge is represented in parameterizable data structures. Speech input is processed throu...