Understanding Editorial Text: A Computer Model of Argument Comprehension

1. The Nature of Argument Comprehension.- 1.1. Introduction.- 1.2. Argument Comprehension in OpEd.- 1.2.1. Domain-Specific Knowledge.- 1.2.2. Beliefs and Belief Relationships.- 1.2.3. Causal Chains of Reasoning.- 1.2.4. Abstract Knowledge of Argumentation.- 1.2.5. Conceptual Representation of Arguments.- 1.2.6. Memory Retrieval.- 1.3. Scope of OpEd.- 1.4. Architecture of OpEd.- 1.5. Contents of the Dissertation.- 2. Representing Politico-Economic Knowledge.- 2.1. Introduction.- 2.2. Politico-Economic Conflicts.- 2.2.1. Basic Socials Acts and Authority Triangles.- 2.2.2. Modeling Situations of Protectionism With Authority Triangles.- 2.2.3. Beliefs and Goals Associated With Situations of Protectionism.- 2.2.4. Organizing Conflict-Resolution Events With Planboxes.- 2.3. Politico-Economic Reasoning.- 2.3.1. Graph of Economic Quantities.- 2.3.2. Modeling Trade With Graphs of Economic Quantities.- 2.3.3. Modeling Reasoning About Protectionism With Reasoning Scripts.- 2.4. Summary.- 3. Beliefs and Belief Relationships.- 3.1. Introduction.- 3.2. Belief Representation.- 3.3. Attack Relationships.- 3.3.1. Attacks Based on Mutually-Exclusive Planning Situations.- 3.3.2. Attacks Based on Opposite Effects on Interrelated Goals.- 3.4. Support Relationships.- 3.4.1. Supports Based on Refinements of Plan Evaluations.- 3.4.2. Supports Based on Refinements of Plan-Goal Relationships.- 3.4.3. Supports Based on Analogies.- 3.4.4. Supports Based on Examples.- 3.5. Summary.- 4. Argument Units.- 4.1. Introduction.- 4.2. Taxonomy of Argument Units.- 4.2.1. Argument Units Based on Unrealized Successes.- 4.2.2. Argument Units Based on Realized Failures.- 4.2.3. Argument Units Based on Realized Successes.- 4.2.4. Argument Units Based on Unrealized Failures.- 4.3. Representing Editorials With Configurations of Argument Units.- 4.4. Generality of Argument Units.- 4.4.1. Language-Independent Nature of Argument Units.- 4.4.2. Domain-Independent Nature of Argument Units.- 4.5. Summary.- 5. Meta-Arguntellt Units.- 5.1. Introduction.- 5.2. Meta-Argument Units Based on Hypocritical Behavior.- 5.2.1. Inconsistencies Between Actions and Professed Beliefs.- 5.2.2. Inconsistencies Between Actions and Criticisms.- 5.2.3. Hypocritical Behavior and Expectation Failures.- 5.2.4. Hypocritical Behavior in Multiple Domains.- 5.3. Meta-Argument Units Based on Unsound Reasoning.- 5.3.1. Burden of Proof.- 5.3.2. Plausibility.- 5.3.3. Tautology.- 5.3.4. Self-Contradiction.- 5.3.5. Reasoning Errors in Multiple Domains.- 5.4. Summary.- 6. Recognizing Argument Structures.- 6. 1. Introduction.- 6.2. Recognizing Evaluative Beliefs From Explicit Standpoints.- 6.3. Recognizing Evaluative Beliefs From Emotional Reactions.- 6.4. Recognizing Causal Beliefs From Evaluative Beliefs.- 6.5. Recognizing Reasoning Scripts From Causal Beliefs.- 6.6. Recognizing Argument Units From Linguistic Constructs.- 6.6.1. Contradictory-Effect Construct.- 6.6.2. Expectation-Failure Construct.- 6.6.3. Argument-Evaluation COnstruct.- 6.7. Recognizing Argument Units From Plan-Failure Beliefs.- 6.8. Summary.- 7. Memory Search and Retrieval.- 7.1. Introduction.- 7.2. Organizing and Indexing Editorial Memory.- 7.3. Retrieving Information From Editorial Memory.- 7.3.1. Belief-Holder Questions.- 7.3.2. Causal-Belief Questions.- 7.3.3. Belief-Justification Questions.- 7.3.4. Affect/Belief Questions.- 7.3.5. Top-Belief/AU Questions.- 7.4. Summary.- 8. Annotated Example of the OpEd System.- 8.1. Introduction.- 8.2. Editorial-Comprehension Trace.- 8.2.1. First Sentence.- 8.2.2. Second Sentence.- 8.2.3. Third Sentence.- 8.2.4. Fourth Sentence.- 8.2.5. Fifth Sentence.- 8.2.6. Sixth Sentence.- 8.2.7. Seventh Sentence.- 8.2.8. Eighth Sentence.- 8.3. Question-Answering Traces.- 8.3.1. Belief-Holder Question.- 8.3.2. Causal-Belief Question.- 8.3.3. Belief-Justification Question.- 8.3.4. Affect/Belief Question.- 8.3.5. Top-Belief/AU Question.- 8.4. Current Status of OpEd.- 9. Future Work and Condusions.- 9.1. Introduction.- 9.2. Comparison With Other Work.- 9.2.1. Argument Analysis in Rhetoric.- 9.2.2. Formal/Logical Approaches to Belief Systems.- 9.2.3. Artificial Intelligence Approaches to Argument Comprehension.- 9.2.4. Psycholinguistic Analysis of Editorial Text.- 9.3. Future Work.- 9.3.1. Long-Term Memory Organization of Arguments.- 9.3.2. Subjective Comprehension of Arguments.- 9.3.3. Belief Inferences Based on Past Arguments.- 9.3.4. Modeling Persuasion.- 9.3.5. Meta-Argument Comprehension.- 9.3.6. Knowledge Engineering Bottlenecks.- 9.4. Summary and Conclusions.- References.