Elements of a Plan-Based Theory of Speech Acts

A plan for a question required the composition of REQUEST and INFORM and led to the development of two new kinds of informing speech acts, INFORMREF To plan a yes/no question about some proposition P. one should think that the and INFORMIF, and their mediating acts. The INFORMREF acts lead to hearer knows whether P is true or false (or, at least "might know"). An approximate "what," "when," and "where" questions while INFORMIF results in a yes/no representation of AGT2's knowing whether P is true or false is OR (AGT2 question.2' The reason for these new acts is that, in planning a REQUEST that BELIEVE P, AGT2 BELIEVE -- P)).'9 Such goals are often created, as modelled someone else perform an INFORM act, one only has incomplete knowledge of by our type 4 inference, when a planner does not know the truth-value of P. their beliefs and goals; but an INFORM, as originally defined can only be Typical circumstances in which an agent may acquire such disjunctive beliefs planned when one knows what is to be said.