Politeness and Alignment in Dialogues with a Virtual Guide

Markus de Jong, Mariet Theune, D.H.W. Hofs

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

    35 Citations (Scopus)
    146 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Language alignment is something that happens automatically in dialogues between human speakers. The ability to align is expected to increase the believability of virtual dialogue agents. In this paper we extend the notion of alignment to affective language use, describing a model for dynamically adapting the linguistic style of a virtual agent to the level of politeness and formality detected in the user’s utterances. The model has been implemented in the Virtual Guide, an embodied conversational agent giving directions in a virtual environment. Evaluation shows that our formality model needs improvement, but that the politeness tactics used by the Guide are mostly interpreted as intended, and that the alignment to the user’s language is noticeable.
    Original languageUndefined
    Title of host publicationProceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2008)
    Place of PublicationEstoril
    PublisherThe International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (IFAAMAS)
    Pages207-214
    Number of pages8
    ISBN (Print)978-0-9817381-0-9
    Publication statusPublished - May 2008
    Event7th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems 2008 - Estoril, Portugal
    Duration: 12 May 200816 May 2008
    Conference number: 7
    http://gaips.inesc-id.pt/aamas2008/

    Publication series

    Name
    PublisherThe International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (IFAAMAS)
    Number274
    Volume1

    Conference

    Conference7th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems 2008
    Abbreviated titleAAMAS 2008
    Country/TerritoryPortugal
    CityEstoril
    Period12/05/0816/05/08
    Internet address

    Keywords

    • Alignment
    • Virtual agents
    • politeness
    • IR-64764
    • EWI-12746
    • METIS-250979
    • EC Grant Agreement nr.: FP6/507422

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