How to Do Things With
Dialogues
A Brief Introduction to Computational Pragmatics
Martin Weißer
Martin.Weisser@rzmail.unierlangen.de
The Relevance of Dialogue
Analysis

dialogue systems
– human-machine interaction for transactions, e.g.
information systems for train/flight timetable
information, bookings & reservations, etc.
– tutorial systems
– human-human mediation for dialogue partners who
speak different languages (VERBMOBIL)


analysis of management meetings, e.g.
automatic identification of decisions
compilation of annotated corpora for
– linguistic purposes, e.g. language teaching or
research
– development of ‘statistical’ procedures (training
materials)
Brief Historical Sketch of Speech
Act Theory

Austin 1962 How to Do Things With Words
– performative verbs
– some utterances don‘t just ‘say’, but ‘do’ something
– felicity conditions

Searle 1969 Speech Acts
–
–
–
–
speech act is the expression of an illocutionary force
one and the same thing can be expressed in different ways
IFIDs =“illocutionary force indicating devices”
conditions that have to be fulfilled in order for a speech act to be
successful




preparatory
sincerity
essential
Grice 1967/75/89 ‘Logic and Conversation’
– implicature
– Co-operative Principle, categories (maxims)




Quantity
Quality
Relation
Manner
– Expectations
What Is Dialogue?
strictly speaking, spoken interaction
between two participants
 occasionally also third parties

 spoken discourse in general

we‘ll mainly be talking about transactional
dialogues
– limited domain



limited vocabulary
limited content
relatively fixed structure
What Is the Linguistic Content of
Dialogues?

hierarchy of levels
– highest level
 subject
(domain; goal, task)
 macro level
– intermediate level
 sub
goals; sub dialogues
 meso level
– lowest level
 speech
act/intentions and semantic information
 micro level

here, we mainly discuss the micro level
What Are the Formal Levels In
Dialogues?
the dialogue itself as a document
 individual speaker turns

– mostly straightforward, but what about
overlaps?

units within the turn?
– sentences?
– phrases?
– other units?

what could the latter depend on, i.e. what
criteria could be used in order to split
turns?
exercise
units
Structural Units Within the Turn


not ‘sentences’, but C-Units
units that comprise both “clausal and non-clausal
units […] that […] cannot be syntactically
integrated with the elements that precede or
follow them.” (Biber et. al., 1999 p. 1070)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
yes/no units
discourse markers
wh-questions
yes/no-questions
declaratives
imperatives
fragments
Yes/No units
 acknowledging
– yes, yeah, yep
 accepting
– yes, please
 negating
– no
 rejecting
– no thanks
Discourse Markers
 certain
parallels with Yes/No
units
 acknowledging
–aha, right, fine, ok
 initiating/initialising
–well, now, so
Wh-Questions

identifiable via question words
– who, what, when, where, how, …

potential problem (at least in European
languages)
– relative pronouns
– exclamations

requests for information
– and how many people's travelling

requests for instructions
– for which journey do you wish to purchase a
ticket
Yes/No-Questions

requests for information
– simple information
 em
is there a train from Liverpool
– options
 do
you hold a current credit or debit card
 do you take Diner's or American Express or anything
like that

choices
– simple choices
 would
you like me to book that for you
– alternatives
 is
it smoking or non smoking
Declaratives
 syntactically
well formed ‘statements’
– em i've just been in touch with the 0 3 4
5 1 2 1 9 6 2 number
 also
‘co-’ and ‘subordinated’ units
if you're actually buying a return ticket
you must return from the station
if you're actually buying a return ticket
Imperatives
 pure
‘orders’
– hold the line
– and confirm that address for me please
 suggestions
– let's say {#} half 3 in the afternoon
Fragments
 syntactically
incomplete ‘statements’
– frequently no finite verb


arriving at 17 30
er Euston to Manchester please
– sometimes single noun phrases



[ October
every hour {#}
er Monday
exercise
units 2
Levels of Content
as we have seen, syntactic form does not
exactly mirror the function of the unit...
 ... , but it restricts it  defaults
 so which additional indicators are there
that may help to ‘disambiguate’ the
syntax?

– ‘communicative’ pieces of content (modes) →
Semantico-Pragmatics
– ‘thematic’ pieces of content (topics) →
Semantics
exercise
syntax & content
Modes


generic indicators of the function of a unit
may sometimes look like speech acts, but often
do not express one themselves, but need to be
interpreted in their context
– e.g. hello in the middle of a dialogue, which initially
looks like a greeting, but mainly indicates ‘uptake’ of an
interrupted dialogue in this position

some modes are inherent to certain syntactic
typen
– wh-questions mainly offer a (relatively) open choice of
options, whereas yes/no-questions mostly offer only a
limited amount of alternatives
– answers conclude dialogue parts ‘opened up’ by
questions
4 Basic Types of Modes

grammatical
– signal conditions or circumstances which influence the
actions of the dialogue participants

interactional
– signal reactions of a dialogue participant to spoken
actions of an interlocutor or initiate/initialise new parts
of a dialogue

point-of-view
– signal awareness, opinions or knowledge of a dialogue
participant

social
– greetings or expressions of sym-/empathy
– often highly cultural
exercise
syntax & modes
Grammatical Modes

alternative
 either, or

condition
 if, whether, unless, as long as, while, etc.

constrain
 (al)though, but, only, have (got) to, must, need, etc.

exists
 there's, there are, is there, etc.

possibility (poss1, poss2, poss3)
 can, be able, might, may, etc.

probability
 probably, likely, etc.

reason
 cos, because, that's why …, etc.



open
closed
closure
Interactional Modes

backchannel
 m(h)m, etc.

intent
 i’ll just …, i’m (not) going to …, i'd like to …, etc.

manage
 bear with me, hold the line, let me think, etc.

offer
 i offer, etc.

preference
 prefer, want(s/ed), wanna, wish, hope, *d/you like,
i/he/she/they/we’d/would rather, i/we'll go for

reassurance
 that‘s ok, that’s fine, etc.

report
 i’m told, i've been told, etc.

abandon
 …
Point-of-View Modes

awareness
 i (know|realise|understand) …, i'm
aware …, etc.

doubt
 i doubt …, i wonder (if) …, etc.

opinion
 we think …, i suppose …, belief, etc.
Social Modes

apology
 apolog(ise|y)

appreciate
 no problem, that would be
(brilliant|correct|fine|great|lovely|wonderful)

thank
 thanks, thank you

greet
 hi, hello, good afternoon, bye

intro
 Sandra speaking

bye
 bye, goodbye

closing
 네 알겠습니다

regret
 i'm (very) sorry, we regret, etc.

expletive
 oh shit, damn, etc.

insult
 you (bastard|idiot), (damn|blast) you
Topics
describe what the dialogue ‘is all about’
 are only of limited usefulness for
‘disambiguation’
 2 different types

– generic
 references
to times & places, addresses & other
personal details, enumerations, etc.
 occur with very high probability in all types of
dialogues
– domain-specific
 type
of ticket, of room, etc.
 specific bits of information, restricted by the domain
exercise
topics
Synthesis of the Speech Act

there are four options for assigning the
final speech act
– the default assigned during the syntax analysis
phase is accepted without modification
– the default may be corrected or newly
assigned, based on syntactic information and
modes
– the default may be corrected or newly
assigned based on syntactic information,
modes and topics
– the default may be newly assigned purely on
the basis of topic information
exercise
speech acts
Spaacy Demo