We report a study of a class of 28 sixth graders engaged in an extended computer-supported argumentive discourse activity. Participants collaborated with a same-side peer in arguing against successive pairs of peers on the opposing side of an issue. Meta-level awareness was facilitated by conducting the dialogs via instant messaging software, which made available a transcript of the dialog that...

The skills involved in argument as a social discourse activity presumably develop during the childhood and adolescent years, but little is known about the course of that development. As an initial step in examining this development, a coding system was developed for the purpose of analyzing multiple dialogues between peers on the topic of capital punishment. A comparison of the dialogues of you...

This paper reports a series of three experimental studies (described in detail in Ong 2013) with three related goals/results. The Vrst goal is to empirically evaluate two competing – syntax vs. discourse driven – accounts of strict vs. sloppy readings of reWexives in VP ellipsis, building on the experimental investigation in Kim and Runner (2009). The results strongly suggest that discourse-bas...

Department of Computer Science North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC, 27695 [email protected] 919.513.3038 In this paper, we set out a basic approach to the modeling of narrative in interactive virtual worlds. This approach adopts a bipartite model taken from narrative theory, in which narrative is composed of story and discourse. In our approach, story elements – plot and character – ar...

Department of Computer Science North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC, 27695 [email protected] 919.513.3038 In this paper, we set out a basic approach to the modeling of narrative in interactive virtual worlds. This approach adopts a bipartite model taken from narrative theory, in which narrative is composed of story and discourse. In our approach, story elements – plot and character – ar...

In modeling the structure of task-related discourse using plans, it is important to distinguish between plans that the agent has adopted and is pursuing and those that are only being considered and explored, since the kinds of utterances arising from a particular domain plan and the patterns of reference to domain plans and movement within the plan tree are quite different in the two cases. Thi...

while the right to health is increasingly referenced in sustainable development goal (sdg) discussions, its contribution to global health and development remains subject to considerable debate. this hypothesis explores the potential influence of the right to health on the formulation of health goals in 4 major sdg reports. we analyse these reports through a social constructivist lens which view...

In a conversation, a speaker sometimes has to refer to an object that is not previously known to the hearer. This type of reference occurs frequently in dialogues where the speaker is giving directions to a particular place. To make a reference, the speaker attempts to build a description of the object that will allow the hearer to identify it when she later reaches it. This thesis presents a c...

Building story-based interactive systems are important for entertainment and education. In the storytelling system, a user can change the discourse of the story by talking with the character. The problem is that the scene goals in the realistic situations are complex and often multiple goals make effects to decide the current action. When a user asks something to the character, the character ne...