A comprehensive theory of meaning for communication acts in multi-agent systems

Based on the Communicative Action Theory proposed by the German Philosopher J. Habermas (1996), we propose a novel framework and formalism that goes beyond the classical speech act theory and its intentionalistic interpretations. We introduce a comprehensive theory of meaning for communication acts, assuming that the content of natural language utterances can be classified in three different domains of discourse, each one with a different type of semantic validation: the domain of objective facts, the internal or subjective domain of the sender, and the social relational domain of the sender and the receiver. We introduce also a crucial shift in the agent interaction approach, focusing on the conversation control issues and the key role played by the receiver. We claim these two new approaches of multiagent interactions will allow us to control and manage the complex interactions among agents in open real world applications.