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in the conceptual model. It also happens that the referring expression, for
example “a block” in “take a block and put it on the left-hand pyramid”, gives
the system a choice between several possibilities, the user imposing the
referent to belong to a specific and concrete set without choosing among the
alternatives: any of them will do.
In general, solving object references is done by using the properties
mentioned and the determination of the referring expression. “The green
pyramid” thus provides the system with three research criteria in the set of
objects available at the time of utterance: the object must be unique and it
must be shaped like a pyramid (category) and green (modifier). If the system's
database has various objects that verify these shape and color properties, there
is an ambiguity. If it finds no object, it cannot solve the reference. If it has a
single object with both properties, then that object is considered to be the
referent and the understanding process moves to the next stage.
It may happen, however, that the terms used do not always quite match the
waythepropertiesareenteredinthedatabasethatcouldexplainthetimeswhen
no referent is found. Going through the conceptual model properties is thus
necessary to verify if an object with a similar shape or color exists, an object
that might be a relevant candidate. This is the kind of situation that may arise
in MMD, since the user does not necessarily have the exact vocabulary that
was used to build the conceptual model and the application's object database.
This is also the kind of situation that can happen in human dialogue, and that
actually shows the whole point of a dialogue: the hearers and speakers can
communicate and come to an agreement on the best terms to use given the
referent. This convergence toward a common term was studied, in particular,
by Brennan and Clark [BRE 96], with the notion of lexical alignment: the
speaker and hearer align their linguistic behavior, especially in terms of words
chosen. Thus, an MMD can do the same thing, which means using the same
termastheuser, andsuggestinganothertermwhenhe/shedoesnotunderstand.
Beyond the properties that appear as full words, reference also involves a
variety of formulations, for example the relative clause in “this itinerary
which appears in the left of the screen”. The challenge for MMD is to
understand the meaning of this restrictive relative clause to deduce a research
criterion in the object database, in this case a spatial arrangement property
that can be calculated with the coordinates of the object as it is displayed on
screen. However, in “this itinerary which seems shorter”, the relative clause is
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