Request for action reconsidered as a dialogue game based on commitments

Abstract

This paper follows recent work in the field of dialectical models of inter-agent communication. The request action as proposed by Winograd & Flores is reconsidered in an original dialogue game framework, as a composition of different basic games (small conversation policies). These basic games are based on commitments of participants and are handled through a "contextualization game" which aims at defining how games are opened or closed through the dialogue, and what combinations are legal. We show how such a model offers more practical flexibility, and covers more situations than the classical protocol. Finally, we give an overview on the game simulator that we are currently developing. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.