Computing Perspective in Dialogue - Computational Linguistics and Talking Robots - page 201

10.4.9 Q UESTIONER AS HEARER PARSING 10.4.7

.

A little poem

lexical lookup

pnc: .
cat: v' decl

noun: poem

noun: n_1 adj: little

cat: adn
sem: pos

cat: sn' snp cat: sn

fnc:
mdr:
prn:

fnc:
mdr:
prn:

prn:

mdd:

prn:

syntactic−semantic parsing

noun: n_1 adj: little

cat: adn

cat: sn' snp

1

fnc:
mdr:

sem: pos
mdd:

prn: 626 prn:

noun: n_1 adj: little

cat: adn

noun: poem

cat: sn' snp cat: sn

2

fnc: sem: pos fnc:

mdr:
prn:

mdr: little mdd: n_1

prn: 626
adj: little
cat: adn

prn: 626

pnc: .
cat: v' decl

noun: poem

cat: snp

3

fnc: sem: pos prn:

mdr: little mdd: poem

prn: 626 prn: 626

result

noun: poem adj: little

cat: adn

cat: snp

fnc: decl sem: pos

mdr: little mdd: poem

prn: 626 prn: 626

On the one hand, the answer to a WH question is declarative in nature, as
indicated by the full stop. On the other hand, it is missing a verb. To charac-
terize the result of the above derivation as a WH answer, we propose copy-
ing the value decl of the full stop into the fnc slot of the noun, and using
the [fnc: decl] feature as a marker for WH answers. This characterizes WH
answers uniquely and allows easy definition of a pattern proplet for their re-
trieval.
While balance is reestablished for the answerer when uttering the answer
(10.4.7), the questioner must not only interpret the answer, as in 10.4.9, but
combine the WH question and the answer into one declarative content. Derived
by the following STAR-2 inference, the resulting content has a new prn value: