Collaboration in automatic dialogue interpreting

Abstract

This paper starts from the assumption that collaboration is a fundamental prerequisite of dialogues. This view is applied to a special instance of human-human dialogues that are mediated by an interpreter. I demonstrate how this situation differs from a normal human-human-dialogue situation: The responsibility for mutual understanding and the control over the dialogue lies with the interpreter. The paper then focuses on the question how a human-human dialogue mediated (i.e. interpreted) by a machine can be adequately modeled. Based on the assumption that the machine cannot bear the responsibility for understanding, I propose certain strategies to compensate for the machine's incapability to take the control. (orig.)Also published in proceedings of the workshop 'collaboration, cooperation and conflict in dialogue systems', IJCAI-97, Nagoya (JP), 1997, p. 79-88Available from TIB Hannover: RR 5221(212)+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman