Grounding two notions of uncertainty in modal conditional statements

Abstract

We outline a method of grounding natural language conditional statements with modal operators of belief and possibility. Our work extends previous works on grounding natural language statements within cognitive agent. We focus on defining criteria on conditional statement's suitability to agents knowledge. We argue that there are two types of modality based on the positioning of modal operator and that it is often impossible to distinguish between them. We propose formal model of agent's mental state and criteria of choosing 'correct' statements that can be checked against that model. The work sets up a theoretical basis on further analytic and experimental analysis. © 2011 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.