Towards computer-human interaction in natural language

Estonian human-human calls (directory inquiries) are analysed with the further aim to develop a computer-human dialogue system that interacts with a user in natural language. The analysis is based on the Estonian Dialogue Corpus. Linguistic features of clients' requests and agents' grants are studied. A client's initial request sets up a goal which will be achieved in collaboration with the agent. Information is given briefly by agents, using short sentences or phrases. Information-sharing sub-dialogues are initiated by both participants if either a request or a grant needs to be adjusted. A formal grammar of information dialogue is introduced in this paper. The results of the study will be implemented in two dialogue systems which are under development.