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  4. Conveying the Perception of Humor Arising from Ambiguous Grammatical Constructs in Human-Chatbot Interaction
 
conference paper

Conveying the Perception of Humor Arising from Ambiguous Grammatical Constructs in Human-Chatbot Interaction

Farah, Juan Carlos  
•
Sharma, Vandit
•
Ingram, Sandy
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2021
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI '21)
9th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI '21)

Chatbots have long been advocated for computer-assisted language learning systems to support learners with conversational practice. A particular challenge in such systems is explaining mistakes stemming from ambiguous grammatical constructs. Misplaced modifiers, for instance, do not make sentences ungrammatical, but introduce ambiguity through the misplacement of an adverb or prepositional phrase. In certain cases, the ambiguity gives rise to humor, which can serve to illustrate the mistake itself. We conducted an online experiment with 400 native English speakers to explore the use of a chatbot to harness such humor. In an interaction resembling an advanced grammar exercise, the chatbot presented participants with a phrase containing a misplaced modifier, explained the ambiguity in the phrase, acknowledged (or ignored) the humor that the ambiguity gave rise to, and suggested a correction. Participants then completed a questionnaire, rating the chatbot with respect to ten traits. A quantitative analysis showed a significant increase in how participants rated the chatbot's personality, humor, and friendliness when it acknowledged the humor arising from the misplaced modifier. This effect was observed whether the acknowledgment was conveyed using verbal, nonverbal (emoji), or mixed cues.

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Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1145/3472307.3484677
Author(s)
Farah, Juan Carlos  
Sharma, Vandit
Ingram, Sandy
Gillet, Denis  
Date Issued

2021

Published in
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI '21)
Total of pages

6

Subjects

chatbots

•

humor

•

language learning

•

misplaced modifiers

•

emoji

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
AVP-E-LEARN  
REACT  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
9th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI '21)

Virtual Event, Japan

November 9–11, 2021

Available on Infoscience
September 13, 2021
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/181416
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