A Brief Introduction to Computational Pragmatics: Analyzing Dialogue Systems and Human Interaction

1. How to Do Things With Dialogues A Brief Introduction to Computational Pragmatics Martin WeißerMartin.Weisser@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de

2. The Relevance of Dialogue Analysis • dialogue systems • human-machine interaction for transactions, e.g. information systems for train/flight timetable information, bookings & reservations, etc. • tutorial systems • human-human mediation for dialogue partners who speak different languages (VERBMOBIL) • analysis of management meetings, e.g. automatic identification of decisions • compilation of annotated corpora for • linguistic purposes, e.g. language teaching orresearch • development of ‘statistical’ procedures (training materials)

3. Brief Historical Sketch of Speech Act Theory • Austin 1962 How to Do Things With Words • performative verbs • some utterances don‘t just ‘say’, but ‘do’ something • felicity conditions • Searle 1969 Speech Acts • speech act is the expression of an illocutionary force • one and the same thing can be expressed in different ways • IFIDs =“illocutionary force indicating devices” • conditions that have to be fulfilled in order for a speech act to be successful • preparatory • sincerity • essential • Grice 1967/75/89 ‘Logic and Conversation’ • implicature • Co-operative Principle, categories (maxims) • Quantity • Quality • Relation • Manner • Expectations

4. What Is Dialogue? • strictly speaking, spoken interaction between two participants • occasionally also third parties • spoken discourse in general • we‘ll mainly be talking about transactional dialogues • limited domain • limited vocabulary • limited content • relatively fixed structure

5. What Is the Linguistic Content of Dialogues? • hierarchy of levels • highest level • subject (domain; goal, task) • macro level • intermediate level • sub goals; sub dialogues • meso level • lowest level • speech act/intentions and semantic information • micro level • here, we mainly discuss the micro level

6. What Are the Formal Levels In Dialogues? • the dialogue itself as a document • individual speaker turns • mostly straightforward, but what about overlaps? • units within the turn? • sentences? • phrases? • other units? • what could the latter depend on, i.e. what criteria could be used in order to split turns? exerciseunits

7. Structural Units Within the Turn • not ‘sentences’, but C-Units • units that comprise both “clausal and non-clausal units […] that […] cannot be syntactically integrated with the elements that precede or follow them.” (Biber et. al., 1999 p. 1070) • yes/no units • discourse markers • wh-questions • yes/no-questions • declaratives • imperatives • fragments

8. Yes/No units • acknowledging • yes, yeah, yep • accepting • yes, please • negating • no • rejecting • no thanks

9. Discourse Markers • certain parallels with Yes/No units • acknowledging • aha, right, fine, ok • initiating/initialising • well, now, so

10. Wh-Questions • identifiable via question words • who, what, when, where, how, … • potential problem (at least in European languages) • relative pronouns • exclamations • requests for information • and how many people's travelling • requests for instructions • for which journey do you wish to purchase a ticket

11. Yes/No-Questions • requests for information • simple information • em is there a train from Liverpool • options • do you hold a current credit or debit card • do you take Diner's or American Express or anything like that • choices • simple choices • would you like me to book that for you • alternatives • is it smoking or non smoking

12. Declaratives • syntactically well formed ‘statements’ • em i've just been in touch with the 0 3 4 5 1 2 1 9 6 2 number • also ‘co-’ and ‘subordinated’ units if you're actually buying a return ticket you must return from the station if you're actually buying a return ticket

13. Imperatives • pure ‘orders’ • hold the line • and confirm that address for me please • suggestions • let's say {#} half 3 in the afternoon

14. Fragments • syntactically incomplete ‘statements’ • frequently no finite verb • arriving at 17 30 • er Euston to Manchester please • sometimes single noun phrases • [ October • every hour {#} • er Monday exerciseunits 2

15. Levels of Content • as we have seen, syntactic form does not exactly mirror the function of the unit... • ... , but it restricts it  defaults • so which additional indicators are there that may help to ‘disambiguate’ the syntax? • ‘communicative’ pieces of content (modes) → Semantico-Pragmatics • ‘thematic’ pieces of content (topics) → Semantics exercisesyntax & content

16. Modes • generic indicators of the function of a unit • may sometimes look like speech acts, but often do not express one themselves, but need to be interpreted in their context • e.g. hello in the middle of a dialogue, which initially looks like a greeting, but mainly indicates ‘uptake’ of an interrupted dialogue in this position • some modes are inherent to certain syntactic typen • wh-questions mainly offer a (relatively) open choice of options, whereas yes/no-questions mostly offer only a limited amount of alternatives • answers conclude dialogue parts ‘opened up’ by questions

17. 4 Basic Types of Modes • grammatical • signal conditions or circumstances which influence the actions of the dialogue participants • interactional • signal reactions of a dialogue participant to spoken actions of an interlocutor or initiate/initialise new parts of a dialogue • point-of-view • signal awareness, opinions or knowledge of a dialogue participant • social • greetings or expressions of sym-/empathy • often highly cultural exercisesyntax & modes

18. Grammatical Modes • alternative • either, or • condition • if, whether, unless, as long as, while, etc. • constrain • (al)though, but, only, have (got) to, must, need, etc. • exists • there's, there are, is there, etc. • possibility (poss1, poss2, poss3) • can, be able, might, may, etc. • probability • probably, likely, etc. • reason • cos, because, that's why …, etc. • open • closed • closure

19. Interactional Modes • backchannel • m(h)m, etc. • intent • i’ll just …, i’m (not) going to …, i'd like to …, etc. • manage • bear with me, hold the line, let me think, etc. • offer • i offer, etc. • preference • prefer, want(s/ed), wanna, wish, hope, *d/you like, i/he/she/they/we’d/would rather, i/we'll go for • reassurance • that‘s ok, that’s fine, etc. • report • i’m told, i've been told, etc. • abandon • …

20. Point-of-View Modes • awareness • i (know|realise|understand) …, i'm aware …, etc. • doubt • i doubt …, i wonder (if) …, etc. • opinion • we think …, i suppose …, belief, etc.

21. Social Modes • apology • apolog(ise|y) • appreciate • no problem, that would be (brilliant|correct|fine|great|lovely|wonderful) • thank • thanks, thank you • greet • hi, hello, good afternoon, bye • intro • Sandra speaking • bye • bye, goodbye • closing • 네 알겠습니다 • regret • i'm (very) sorry, we regret, etc. • expletive • oh shit, damn, etc. • insult • you (bastard|idiot), (damn|blast) you

22. Topics • describe what the dialogue ‘is all about’ • are only of limited usefulness for ‘disambiguation’ • 2 different types • generic • references to times & places, addresses & other personal details, enumerations, etc. • occur with very high probability in all types of dialogues • domain-specific • type of ticket, of room, etc. • specific bits of information, restricted by the domain exercisetopics

23. Synthesis of the Speech Act • there are four options for assigning the final speech act • the default assigned during the syntax analysis phase is accepted without modification • the default may be corrected or newly assigned, based on syntactic information and modes • the default may be corrected or newly assigned based on syntactic information, modesand topics • the default may be newly assigned purely on the basis of topic information exercisespeech acts

24. Spaacy Demo