Implicational Molecules: A Method for Extracting Meaning from Input Sentences

A genera l ly overlooked p o s s i b i l i t y f o r e x t r a c t ing pragmatic meaning from sentence inputs is d i s cussed. This p o s s i b i l i t y draws upon tha psychology o f tha sub jec t i ve a t t r i b u t i o n o f causes to st imulus events. App l i ca t ion to the design of conversat ional programs ia feas ib le , although the praaant work concerns app l i ca t i on to the a imulat ion of a b e l i e f system. Simple sentences known by the system ara grouped i n t o ca tegor i ca l types. An " i m p l i c a t i o n a l molecule" ia a meaningful aet of sentence types w i t h l i n ked elements, f o r example: A doea X, X causes Y, A wants Y. One important way in which meaning can ba ascr ibed to an input sentence is to use i t as the basis f o r a molecule which ia then " f i l l e d " by other in format ion in tha system. This no t ion ia def ined mathematically , and a programming a lgor i thm o u t l i n e d . The poss i b i l i t y o f recurs ive use o f a m o l e c u l e f i l l i n g r o u t i n e gives tha process h e u r i s t i c overtones.