LINGUIST List 3.925

Tue 24 Nov 1992

Misc: Control Language; CALIS

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1. dwight tuinstra, Re: Control language
2. , Re: 3.922 FYI: CALIS; Cognitive Linguistics Summary

It might be worthwhile to look at the "control languages" of
of trained animals, expecially those in hazardous or violent
situations (such as guard dogs). There is likely to be a
fairly long history of accumulating practical experience,
and such animals share the same problem of an "intelligent"
computer -- how to distinguish a command from the other
sounds around them.
 I thought of this when reading the description of the
computer commands in Larry Niven's fiction. It reminded me
of a magazine article I read long ago regarding (of all people)
Billy Graham. He had two German Shepard guard/attack dogs
(reluctantly), who were trained to respond to commands in
German.
 There is also the Naval shipboard tradition of repeating
a command before executing it -- thus giving the commanding
entity a verification check, and a chance to remand the
order if incorrectly understood. There may be other military
practices applicable to the problem; it's another instance of
noisy situations where correct filtering and understanding
are critical.
 --dwight tuinstra tuinstdwsnypotva.bitnet

Message 2: Re: 3.922 FYI: CALIS; Cognitive Linguistics Summary

I would like to amend the notice posted re CALIS: it is an AUTHORING
program. That it, is can be used to write exercises in ANY language (including
non-Roman). There is not, as far as I know, any specific set out
and around for Italian. If there is, please let me know too!

Wisc-Ware (University of Wisconsin) does have a few for Italian, but
they seem to be basic verb drills.

Leslie Morgan
Loyola College in Md.
MORGANLOYVAX.BITNET or MORGANLOYOLA.EDU