Computational situation theory with baby-sit

Abstract

Language is an integral part of our everyday experience and encompasses situated activities such as talking, listening, reading, and writing. These activities are situated because they occur in situations and they are about situations. Their primary function, on the other hand, is to convey information. With this vision, situation theory has been developed over the last decade or so and various versions of the theory have been applied to a number of linguistic issues. However, not much work has been done in regard to its computational aspects. Existing approaches towards 'computational situation theory' incorporate only some of the original features of situation theory and hence show conceptual and philosophical divergence from its ontology. This thesis presents a computational account of situation theory that embodies the essentials of the theory and adopts its ontological features. A medium (called BABY-SIT) which is based on the proposed computational foundation is described and its constructs are formally defined. The features of BABY-SIT are compared to those of the existing approaches. In order to demonstrate the appropriateness of BABY-SIT, some examples from the domain of artifical intelligence are given. Resolution of pronominal anaphora in Turkish , which has been chosen as a linguistic test-bed for BABY-SIT, is also demonstrated.