English

Rationality, Cooperation and Conversational Implicature

cmp-lg 2007-05-23 v1 Computation and Language

Abstract

Conversational implicatures are usually described as being licensed by the disobeying or flouting of a Principle of Cooperation. However, the specification of this principle has proved computationally elusive. In this paper we suggest that a more useful concept is rationality. Such a concept can be specified explicitely in planning terms and we argue that speakers perform utterances as part of the optimal plan for their particular communicative goals. Such an assumption can be used by the hearer to infer conversational implicatures implicit in the speaker's utterance.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cmp-lg/9806004,
  title  = {Rationality, Cooperation and Conversational Implicature},
  author = {Mark Lee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cmp-lg/9806004},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

Presented at the Ninth Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence (1997)