Dialogue and game theory

The game theory is an interesting framework for the dialogue modeling, both the human dialogue and the human-machine dialogue. Indeed, the dialogue comes as a series of turn talking oriented towards achieving a goal. Each turn is composed by speech acts - can be likened to “moves” of game theory - which produces the effects of gains or losses during the dialogue. The main advantage concerning the application of the game theory in dialogue is that it does not require knowledge of cognitive processes or intentions of the participants, but assumes only that they have issues and interests in the dialogue they seek to satisfy. This article describes our contribution on the pragmatics of the dialogue: (a) the dialogue is not only a cognitive processing and relevant statements of the utterances produced by the other (the alter-ego) nor a social game using domination through a more or less logical argument to reach its goals or rhetorical means to achieve his ends, but also (b) a co-construction of self through gains advancing its own goals. In this paper we consider dialogue as a double process around the choice of ends and the means. Finally, we propose a general model of dialogue based on game theory.