Getting computers to talk like you and me : discourse context, focus, and semantics : (an ATN model) /

Researchers in the computer science subspecialty, artificial intelligence, have expended a great deal of effort in exploration of how language is understood, for the purpose of programming computers to ``understand,'' or model understanding of, human language. While the 1960s and 1970s saw an emphasis for this purpose on sentential linguistics-syntax and semantics on the sentence level-current theoretical work is beginning to turn to global questions of discourse analysis. Reichman concentrates on the ``conversational flow''-the coherence of the conversation-and describes a formal model, intended for computer implementation. Much work has been done by linguists in discourse analysis and pragmatics. What is new here is Reichman's explicit description of discourse rules in a formalism widely used for computer implementations of language parsing-the ATN, or augmented transition network. The writing is clear, the issues substantive, and the model convincing. An extensive bibliography is included. Highly recommended for libraries supporting graduate programs in linguistics, computer science, or cognitive science.-R.H. Sanders, Miami University, Ohio