DIALOGUE-SOUND PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD

A dialogue-sound processing appratus of the present invention generates discourse structure representing the flow of dialogue from fragmentary spoken utterances. In the dialogue-sound processing apparatus, the speech fragments of the dialogue-sound is inputted through a sound input section. A clue extraction section extracts clue which is a word or prosodic feature representing flow of dialogue from the speech fragments. An utterance function rule memory section memorizes utterance function rule which is correspondence relation between the clue and the utterance function representing pragmatic effect for the flow of dialogue. An utterance function extraction section assigns the utterance function to the clue in accordance with the utterance function rule. A discourse structure generation section generates discourse structure representing the flow of dialogue from fragmentary spoken utterances in accordance with the utterance function corresponding to the clue assigned by the utterance function extraction section.