Repairing Miscommunication: Relaxation in Reference

Abstract

In natural language interactions listener a speaker and cannot be assured to have beliefs, the same contexts, back rounds or goals. ' leads to difficulties an Lf mistakes when a list%: tries to interpret a speaker's utterance. One principal source of trouble is the description constructed by the speaker to refer to an actual object in the world. imprecise, confused, The description can be ambiguous or overly specific; it might be interpreted under the wrong context. This paper explores the problem of resolving such reference failures in the context of the task of assembling a toy water pump. We are using actual protocols to drive the design of a program that e lays he the part of an apprentice who must interpret A instructions of an expert and carry them out. descriptions is by primary means for the apprentice to repadif such description. relaxing parts the I