ISO 24617-2:2020

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 24617-2
Second edition
2020-12
Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework
(SemAF) —
Part 2:
Dialogue acts
Gestion des ressources langagières — Cadre d'annotation sémantique
(SemAF) —
Partie 2: Actes de dialogue
Reference number
©
ISO 2020
© ISO 2020
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ii © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .v
Introduction .vi
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Use cases . 5
5 Basic concepts and metamodel . 6
5.1 Dialogue acts . 6
5.2 Dependence relations . 8
5.3 Rhetorical relations. 9
5.4 Qualifiers .11
5.5 Metamodel .11
6 Multifunctionality, multidimensionality and segmentation .11
6.1 Multifunctionality .11
6.2 Multidimensionality and dimensions .13
6.3 Segmentation .14
7 Specification of the annotation scheme .15
7.1 Overview .15
7.2 Dimensions .15
7.2.1 Overview .15
7.2.2 Task and Task Management .16
7.2.3 Auto-Feedback and Allo-Feedback .16
7.2.4 Turn Management .16
7.2.5 Time Management .16
7.2.6 Discourse Structuring .17
7.2.7 Social Obligations Management .17
7.2.8 Own- and Partner Communication Management .17
7.2.9 Contact Management .17
7.3 Communicative functions .17
7.3.1 Overview .17
7.3.2 General-purpose functions .19
7.3.3 Dimension-specific functions .20
7.3.4 Responsive communicative functions .21
7.4 Functional and feedback dependences .22
7.5 Qualifiers .22
8 The Dialogue Act Markup Language (DiAML) .23
8.1 Overview .23
8.2 Abstract syntax .24
8.3 Concrete syntax .24
8.4 Semantics .26
9 Extension and customization .27
9.1 Overview .27
9.2 Simplifying the annotation scheme: options and selections .27
9.3 Extending the annotation scheme: triple-layered plug-ins and interfaces .28
Annex A (normative) Formal specification of DiAML .30
Annex B (normative) DiAML-XML technical schema.36
Annex C (normative) Data categories for DiAML concepts .40
Annex D (informative) Plug-ins for semantic content and other enrichments .62
Annex E (informative) Annotation guidelines and examples .73
Bibliography .92
iv © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

Foreword
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editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives).
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iso/ foreword .html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and terminology,
Subcommittee SC 4, Language resource management.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 24617-2:2012), which has been technically
revised.
The main changes compared to the previous edition are as follows:
— in 6.2, ‘reference segments’ are introduced to allow more accurate annotations of feedback
dependence relations;
— in 6.3, a more detailed way of annotating rhetorical relations between dialogue acts is made possible
by importing concepts from ISO 24617-8:2016 (DR-core);
— in 7.2, the Contact Management dimension, known from the DIT++ annotation scheme, and the Task
Management dimension, known from the DAMSL annotation scheme, have been added, along with a
few communicative functions specific for contact management;
— in 7.5 and Annex D, a possibility is introduced for importing elements from the W3C recommendation
EmotionML in order to add affective information to dialogue acts;
— in Clause 9 and Annex D, the mechanism of ‘triple-layered annotation scheme plug-in’ with ‘plug-in
interface’ is introduced; this mechanism allows the dialogue act annotation to be customized, using
application-specific concepts, and to be enriched with semantic content information.
A list of all parts in the ISO 24617 series can be found on the ISO website.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html.
Introduction
Since its publication in 2012, ISO 24617-2 has been used in a number of annotation efforts as well as in
the development of language-based interactive systems. These experiences have brought to light
— that the standard allowed dialogue act annotations that are slightly inaccurate in some respects,
— that some applications would benefit from the availability of mechanisms for customizing the set of
concepts defined in the standard, and
— that certain use cases require the representation of functional dialogue act information to be
extended with semantic content information.
This second edition seeks to remedy the noted inaccuracies, and to provide mechanisms
a) for customizing the set of defined concepts, and
b)
...