Fon Sundaravej
A Foundation for Flexible Automated Electronic Communication
By Scott A. Moore
The author of this article applies linguistic theories to renovate a formal and
flexible communication language for electronic commerce. Today businesses connect
their partners by employing an electronic data interchange (EDI) or agent communication
language (ACL). However, the author claims that the EDI and ACL are complicated,
rigid, and costly technologies, resulting in the hesitation of their adoption. To overcome
this problem, a simple, flexible, and economical conversation between business partners
is needed. This article initiates an approach to handle incrementally complex messages in
the electronic communication by using the formal language for business communication
(FLBC) language and massage management system (MMS) based upon the speech act
theory (SAT) and models of discourse.
Several numbers of existing technologies such as the Common Object Request
Broker Architecture (CORBA) and the Extensible Markup Language (XML) allow
different computers to understand each other. Additionally, various agent communication
languages are recently defined. However, until today there has been no single language
whose messages are fully formal; whose meaning is formally defined; whose set of
message types are generally classified; whose content is recursively defined; whose
formal message model is interpreted and corresponds to the MMS’s formal model; and
whose semantics are uncomplicated. If a language with all these capabilities is invented,
the author argues that the addition of a new message or business partner in a
communication among organizations will be simplified. In this article, the author
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develops a formal definition of a language and its related message interpretation
mechanism to establish a communication infrastructure for an extensive class of
applications based on linguistic theories.
The SAT and models of natural language discourse are utilized in this context to
obtain a wide range of language expression and simplicity of adaptability. The SAT
describes that talking is not only semantics but acting. When people speak, their words do
not have a meaning in and of themselves. They are affected by the situation, speaker, and
listener. Thus, words alone do not have a simple fixed meaning. Every speech act
consists of different actions. Utterance act is where something is said without any
meaning. Locutionary act is saying something with a certain meaning in traditional sense.
Illocutionary act contains a certain force such as informing, ordering, or warning.
Perlocutionary act brings about or achieves something such as convincing, persuading, or
deterring. Perlocutionary act or the hearer’s response to the speaker’s speech can be
differentiated into two types: the standard effect and extended effect. The standard effect
occurs as a successful outcome of the illocutionary act. The extended effect, however,
happens after the standard effect because of changes in the hearer’s beliefs. Propositional
content is a particular reference or predication existing in every speech act. Different
attitudes can be expressed toward the same proposition. Every speech act has the F (P)
structure, where F is an illocutionary force applied to a proposition and P is the
propositional content of the act. The author defines the speech act scenario (SAS) as a
sequence of the four aforementioned acts. The success of a communication depends on
the hearer recognition to the intention of the speaker, not the responded result of the
hearer to the speech. Only the SAT is not sufficient to address problems from a
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conversation because it focuses only on the speech and the success after actions. The
author discusses models of discourse or conversation which contains a process that a
hearer interprets a speaker’s statement to solve different problems from the conversation.
A basic structure and simple to complex examples of a FLBC message are
introduced. A complex FLBC message contains messages within messages or a recursive
defined message. The recursion can continue indefinitely. Thus, the FLBC message
structure can be written as F (F1 (P1 (F2 (P2… (Fn (Pn)))))).
The overall structure of the message interpretation process and the
implementation of a new model with an example are also explained. The author proposes
a new model, called the formal language speech act scenario (FL-SAS), for automated
electronic communication based upon the SAS. A message in FLBC is sent to the FLSAS which is the process that message listeners go through in order to understand the
FLBC message. To response and interpret a message, the MMS passes a message from
the FL-SAS to standard effects and extended effects. A few message handlers are added
into the FL-SAS to evaluate the message based on the message’s illocutionary force.
However, an unpredictable response to certain messages is more complicated. Rules
about conversations or processes, which result from changes of a hearer’s belief to a
received message, are constructed for complex responses. In this article, the author
proposes five methods of responding to messages with various levels of complexities. A
completed list of methods still needs to be undertaken. If the system cannot match the
message against ongoing conversation after a message’s standard effects, there is no
error. Instead, the system starts a new conversation automatically.
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In conclusion, the message structure that the author provides in the article is
exceptionally appropriate for a topic expansion with a simplified implementation.
However, the FL-SAS has not been applied in a real setting, particularly with a
sophisticated conversation. The articulation of system requirements is required. The real
effectiveness and benefits from this new model have not been proved. Further
investigation is needed. Even so, the author suggests using the FL-SAS as an addition to
the existing EDI standards to benefit the application developers and users and support
electronic inter- and intra-organizational communication to increase the company’s
productivity.
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