Combining Simulative and Metaphor-Based Reasoning about Beliefs

Abstract

An unprecedented combination of simulative and metaphor-based reasoning about beliefs is achieved in an AI system, ATT-Meta. Much mundane discourse about beliefs uses conceptual metaphors (e.g., MIND AS CONTAINER) productively, and ATTMeta 's metaphor-based reasoning accordingly leads to crucial discourse comprehension decisions. ATT-Meta's non-metaphorical mode of belief reasoning includes simulative reasoning (SR). In ATT-Meta, metaphor-based reasoning can block and otherwise influence the course of SR. Also, ATT-Meta can nest SR and metaphorbased reasoning within themselves and each other. As well as currently allowing ATT-Meta to simulatively reason about beliefs about beliefs ..., the nesting will in the near future allow the system to handle chained metaphors, ascribe its own metaphor-based reasoning to other agents, and apply simulative reasoning to purely metaphorical agents. Introduction Metaphors in discourse affect an understander's task of obtaining a coherent understand..