Modelling illocutionary structure: Combining empirical studies with formal model analysis

Abstract

In this paper we revisit the topic of dialogue grammars at the illocutionary force level and present a new approach to the formal modelling, evaluation and comparison of these models based on recursive transition networks. Through the use of appropriate tools such finitestate grammars can be formally analysed and validated against empirically collected corpora. To illustrate our approach we show: (a) the construction of human-human dialogue grammars on the basis of recently collected natural language dialogues in joint-task situations; and (b) the evaluation and comparison of these dialogue grammars using formal methods. This work provides a novel basis for developing and evaluating dialogue grammars as well as for engineering corpus-tailored dialogue managers which can be verified for adequacy. © Springer-Verlag 2010.