The workshop focuses on the issue of modelling "natural" argumentation.
Naturalness may involve the use of means which are more visual than linguistic to illustrate a point, such as graphics or multimedia. Or to the use of more sophisticated rhetorical devices, interacting at various layers of abstraction. Or the exploitation of "extra-rational" characteristics of the audience, taking into account emotions and affective factors.
CMNA has the following areas of interest:
- The characteristics of natural arguments: ontological aspects and cognitive issues.
- Personalisation and tailoring of argument to a specific audience
- Models of arguer and models of audience
- The use of models from informal logic and argumentation theory, and in particular, approaches to specific schools of thought developed in informal logic and argumentation.
- Rhetoric and affect: the role of emotions, personalities, etc. in models of argumentation.
- The roles of maneuvering and deceit and the ethical implications of implemented systems demonstrating such features.
- The linguistic characteristics of natural argumentation, including discourse markers, sentence format, referring expressions, and style. Persuasive discourse processing (discourse goals and structure, speaker/hearer models, content selection, etc.). Language dependence and multilingual approaches. Empirical work based on corpora looking at these topics are especially welcomed.
- Non-monotonic, defeasible and uncertain argumentation.
- Natural argumentation and media: visual arguments, multi-modal arguments, spoken arguments.
- Models of argumentation in multi-agent systems inspired by or based upon theories of human argument.
- Empirically driven models of argument in AI and Law.
- Evaluative arguments and their application in AI systems (such as decision support and advice giving).
- Issues of domain specificity, and in particular, the independence of argumentation techniques from the domain of application.
- Applications of computer supported collaborative argumentation, in realistic domains in which argument plays a key role, including pedagogy, e-democracy and public debate.
- Applications of argumentation based systems, including, for example, the pedagogical, health-related, political, and promotional.
- Methods to better convey the structure of complex argument, including representation and summarisation.
- Tools for interacting with structures of argument, including visualisation tools and interfaces supporting natural, stylised or formal dialogue.
- The building of computational resources such as online corpora related to argumentation.