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We present an integrated discourse recipe-based model (DRM) for dialogue generation and interpretation. Discourse recipes are generalizations of discourse plans. The DRM has been implemented as part of a conversational agent that supports task-oriented dialogue between human and artificial pilots. The design of the DRM has been strongly influenced by its implementation in the Soar cognitive architecture. In the DRM, discourse recipes are acquired as a side effect of dialogue planning. The discourse recipes can be used for generation and interpretation in future situations in place of planning and reasoning from first principles. We describe the motivation for a discourse recipe-based approach and present the design of the DRM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore, the child's use of language in one social context, the adversative eipsode. Although there is an increase with age in the complexity of interpersonal discourse, by the age of three children have already begun to display socially adaptive, conversational behavior (e.g., Garvey & Hogan, 1973; Mueller, 1972). Yet thus far, little mention has been made of the topic or content of children's discourse, that is, "what do children talk about together?" How do children interact to accomplish an objective-to perform a social task? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the interruptions and the interpretation of conversation based on a panel discussion aired on a public television in San Francisco, California. Reaction of participants to interruptions; Drawbacks of the phenomenological approach to the interpretation of human discourse; Overview on the gestaltist conception of discourse.

Focuses on the pre-observations on the modeling of dialogue. Assumptions that underlie speech act models of dialogue; Identifiability of utterance units corresponding to unit acts; Capacity of the models to model the actual properties of natural dialogue.

Studies of adults' speech to language-learning children indicate that children hear a language sample which is probably well suited to their developing linguistic needs How to characterize the relationship between adult speech and child language development remains, however, an unsettled issue. This study proposes one important function for adult-child dialogues in the developmental process The dialogue provides the child with opportunities to participate with adults in creating linguistic relationships of which he/she would be incapable alone. This proposal is similar to the "zone of proximal development? discussed by Vygotsky and reviewed here. Data for the study come from dialogues between mothers and their children between the ages of 20 and 32 months. As a reflection of another proposal, that dialogue can only be adequately described in terms of discourse level relations, the specific area of investigation was the discourse level relation ellipsis. Dialogues were coded with categories of ellipsis and in terms of the sequential order of speakers. Results indicate that: 1) Categories of ellipsis develop in an orderly manner simultaneously with the development of syntax (as measured by mean length of utterance); 2) Categories of ellipsis emerge in between-speaker sequences; 3) Children participate in elliptical relations before they have developed syntax; 4) Mothers use all types of ellipsis in within-speaker speech, regardless of their children's linguistic level, but their between-speaker use of ellipsis is adjusted to child's level of language by virtue of th? rules of ellipsis; and 5) The dialogue per se changes as the child develops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]