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<Paper uid="P98-2168">
  <Title>A Computational Model of Social Perlocutions</Title>
  <Section position="2" start_page="0" end_page="1020" type="intro">
    <SectionTitle>
1 Introduction
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> The importance of viewing utterances as not simply statements of fact but also as real actions (speech acts) with consequences has long been well understood (Searle, 1969; Austin 1975; Grice 1975). As a result, it is important to study not just the formal aspects of language forms but also how speakers use different forms to serve different functions. For example, one function of the act of informing another person is to make the person aware of a state of affairs; similarly, one function of promising is to secure the return of a favor.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> Unfortunately, the study of speech acts has been largely limited to the collection and clmmification of act types and the conditions for appropriate use of each type (Searle 1969; Wierzbicks 1987). The range of functions, or perlocu~iot;~ry effeef~, served by different act types has been largely ignored. In particular, there has been little or no work on the impact that speech acts can have on social attitudes and behavior. Yet, without an account of how commu-Professor WHITNEY, Thank you for your invitation. \] Unfortunately, I will not be able to give a talk at THE U OF M COMPUTER  to construct systems that are capable of generating socially appropriate text.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> This paper provides a computational model of aocial perlocutionJ, and it describes how this model has been used to construct an automated system, PSetterGen~ for generating socially appropriate e-mall messages and letters. This system takes general communicative and social goals from the user, such as demanding action or expressing congratulations, queries the user about subgoals and pertinent background information, and generates the text of an appropriate message by planning individual speech acts.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> As an example, Figure 1 shows a message generated by LetterGen in response to an input goal to decline an invitation politely. In this example, the writer was invited by the addressee to travel and give a talk, but the writer had a previous commitment and must decline. However, the writer knows some- null one who could give the talk in his place. The system planned s set of speech acts and realized each as a clause or phrase using a text template library. These acts include (1) thanking, (2) declining-request, (3) apologizing, (4) making-excuse, (5) advising, (6) assuring, and (7) requesting.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> Most of the text in the letter is devoted to addressing the writer's social goals of being polite and helpful. In contrast, a letter writer concerned only with informing the addresee that he was not participating would likely say little other than &amp;quot;I won't be giving a talk at your event n, a socially inappropriate response.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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