Modelling Verbally Expressed Humour

Graeme Ritchie
Division of Informatics
University of Edinburgh

Despite centuries of pondering by philosophers, there is no theory of
the mechanisms of humour which reaches the level of detail, rigour or
precision necessary for computational modelling. There has also been
remarkably little attention to humour within the otherwise adventurous
discipline of artificial intelligence. This talk is a discussion of
how we could move towards more precise symbolic analyses of humour,
particularly humour conveyed in language.  This will include some
suggestions concerning the "incongruity-resolution" account of humour.