Generating Queries and Replies during Information-seeking Interactions

Analysis of naturally occurring information-seeking dialogues indicates that they usually consist of a number of distinct discourse segments, such as a greeting segment, a request issued by a user, an optional clarification segment, a transfer of information segment, and a final closing segment. The clarification interaction is often initiated by the information provider, and it may be due to one of the following reasons: (1) there is confusion regarding the user's intentions, (2) there is insufficient information to formulate a plan to satisfy a recognized intention, or (3) there is difficulty in formulating a plan that satisfies a recognized intention. Once the information provider determines the user's intention and formulates a plan to achieve this intention, the information transfer phase is initiated to inform the user about the proposed plan. In this paper, we present a mechanism for generating queries during the clarification stage and answers during the information transfer st..