Story-processing systems have to deal, or avoid dealing, with INFERENCE CONTROL..6, 11, 13; when designing one such system2, we were greatly helped by the "(ERC)RC" expression for connotation1. Our system is specialised in multifaceted descriptions of characters (not, however, in the most difficult problems of beliefs about beliefs4 and 8): here we present another aspect of the story character processing, namely the recursive EXPLANATION of inconsistencies appearing in the description of a character.We give a very schematic system overview, then some details about the CONNOTATION rules and an example of their application to a story.

This paper describes a dialogue-based system which is intended as an intelligent natural language interface to the French Yellow Pages. We do not assume that the user knows how the Yellow Pages are organized, and we paraphrase his request, if necessary, so as to better search for the desired information. We do, however, assume that the reason the user is on line is to find an address and phone number for some supplier.



There are three basic modules used in our system: parser, dialogue manager, and generator. The first two exist (and are constantly being extended); the generation module is still only a set of functional specifications which will be outlined later in this article.



Cet article decrit un systeme a base de dialogues concu comme une interface intelligente en langue naturelle des Pages jaunes francaises. Nous ne presumons pas que l'utilisateur sait comment les Pages jaunes sont structurees et nous paraphrasons sa demande, si necessaire, afin de faciliter la recherche du renseignement desire. Cependant, nous presumons que la raison pour laquelle l'utilisateur est en ligne est qu'il recherche l'adresse et le numero de telephone d'un fournisseur.



Trois modules de base sont utilises dans notre systeme: analyseur, gestionnaire de dialogues et generateur. Les deux premiers existent (et font constamment l'objet d'une extension); le module de generation n'est qu'un ensemble de specifications fonctionnelles qui seront decrites plus loin dans cet article.

Connotation as a form of inference

A question‐answering system for the French Yellow Pages

Publisher Summary Minsky introduced the terminology of frames to unify and denote a loose collection of related ideas on knowledge representation. Frames are sometimes understood at the metaphysical level. One aspect of frame reasoning which is often considered to lie outside of logic is the idea of a default value: a value that is taken to be the slot filler in the absence of explicit information to the contrary. A close analysis of what defaults mean shows that they are intimately connected with the idea of observations: additions of fresh knowledge into a data-base. Their role in inference — the drawing of consequences of assumptions — is readily expressible in logic, but their interaction with observation requires that the role of the state of the system's own knowledge is made explicit. This requires not a new logic but an unusual ontology and some new primitive relations. One needs to be able to talk about the system itself, in its own language, and to involve assumptions about itself in its own processes of reasoning. An emphasis on the analysis of such processes of reflexive reasoning is one of the few positive suggestions which the frames movement has produced.

Connotation as a form of inference

Citations

A question‐answering system for the French Yellow Pages

References

The Logic of Frames

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