Pragmatically-Motivated Utterance Fine-Tuning in Human-Computer Dialogue

The naturalness and user-friendliness of the utterances generated by the computer when engaging in dialogue with humans is a key point for the success of spoken language interaction-based computer applications. This article addresses the issue by proposing a mechanism for controlling the strength of the illocutionary force conveyed by the utterances produced by the machine. The degree of strength for a speech act roughly quantifies the pressure that this act puts on its recipient. Few research efforts are reported for controlling this pressure in utterance generation. This article provides the means to adjust this force, relying on the discourse structure of the dialogue and on the public commitments that the speakers make during the dialogue. After a concise statement of the formal framework, the proposed approach is presented in a detailed manner and qualitatively assessed via relevant examples.