Dialogue Acts Recognition - Man-Machine Dialogue: Design and Challenges - page 114

moreofthenatureofapassingthought.Theonlylinguistictestthatworkswith
this proposition is that of the assertion: “after all, this itinerary seems shorter”.
However, with this comment, the user might be trying to get the system to react
as if it were a query: “this itinerary seems shorter, right?”. The phenomenon
described here is that of an indirect speech act. It has been greatly studied
from a theoretical point of view [SEA 69], Chapter 5 of [LEV 83], [MOE 85]
and also from a more formal point of view [SEA 85, ASH 01]. Some authors
consider that the speech act carried out by the utterance is an assertion, and our
way of interpreting it turns it into a question. Others consider that one form can
take the place of another by convention. This is notably the case for an order,
which, when given in the imperative, can appear brutal, to the point that the
query is preferred (and becomes a conventional indirect act). Others, and this is
especially the case of [ASH 01], put the current utterance into perspective with
regard to the previous or the following, then clarify the discourse relationship
that exists between them and help the analysis fall down on the side of the
indirect act. More specifically, the discourse relationship itself becomes an act,
andthequerywhichlookslikeanassertionbecomesacomplexact, whichdoes
not cause the MMD system any problem because it is already used to manage
all kinds of ambiguities. Whatever path is chosen for the interpretation, the
important part for the MMD progress is that the system must understand that it
can react by answering the comment, that is by confirming or denying that it is
the shortest itinerary. If the system does not detect this indirect interpretation
possibility, then it can only answer the question asked by the main proposition
“how long with this itinerary?”. This might not be an issue, but it does lower
its understanding abilities and cooperation abilities a great deal.
Another typical example of the indirect act phenomena is the query hiding
an order, such as “can you listen to me?” in our train information task. With the
linguistic tests seen at the beginning of section 7.1.1, we can see that the order
andthe queryboth workwell with thisexample: “can youlisten tome please?”
and “tell me, can you listen to me?”. The hypothesis of the simple question
doesnotholdwaterverylong: thesystemisabsolutelyabletolistentotheuser,
so the answer “yes I can” does not bring anything to the dialogue. Unless it is a
specific case, as if the user has just approached the system and not yet noticed
its understanding abilities, this is not what is at stake here. The question “can
you listen to me?” could also refer to the communication situation conditions:
in a noisy environment, the user may believe that the system cannot hear him
(“can you hear me?” would in this case be more relevant). Realistically, it is
an injunction that the user is carrying out, or even an overtone such as “pay