Helpful answers to modal and hypothetical questions

Abstract

University of EssexEngland emaih derce@uk.ac.essex (janet) 1.0 ABSTRACT, This paper describes a computational pragmatic model which is geared towards providing helpful answers to modal and hypothetical questions. The work brings together elements from fonnal. semantic theories on modality m~d question answering, defines a wkler, pragmatically flavoured, notion of answerhood based on non-monotonic inference aod develops a notion of context, within which aspects of more cognitively oriented theories, such as Relevance Theory, can be accommodated. The model has been inlplemented. The research was fundexl by ESRC grant number R000231279.

Speculative requirements: Automatic detection of uncertainty in natural language requirements

“…It is considered as an uncertainty cue only in its epistemic sense. This is also the case for some other modal auxiliaries (e.g., can, could, should, and would) which express uncertainty only when used in a particular sense, which may be identified from the surrounding context of the modal [2]. Such terms are called weak cues.…”

Answers to modal and hypothetical questions in knowledge base systems

“…[10] ~Mskilltodrive(a) [11] ~Mlicensed(a) contradiction [10] [4] Again here the proof fails monotonically as in the second example above. The answer in this case is No, because John does not have a license.…”

“…[1] M~drive(a) [2] ownscar(a) [31 licensed(a) [4] skilltodrive(a) [5] ownscar(a)&licensed (a)&skilltodrive(a) drive(a) [6] ~M(ownscar (a)&licensed (a)&skilltodrive(a)) [7] ~M~drive(a) [8] ~Mownscar(a) [9] ~M(licensed (a)&skilltodrive(a)) [10] ~Mlicensed(a) [11] ~Mskilltodrive(a) goal premise premise premise premise contradiction [7] [1] contradiction [8] [2] contradiction [10] [3] contradiction [11] [4] The theorem prover reports that the inference KB t-drive(a) is proven by refutation. The inference was proven monotonically (i.e., without the need to use the rule (R3)) and required no subproofs.…”

“…More details on the complete model are available in [3,4]. Rather we sketch the background to the problems involved in providing helpful answers to modal and hypothetical questions.…”