--- title: "Indirect Responses to Loaded Questions — Kaplan 1978" description: "Kaplan addresses a practical gap in natural language (NL) database interfaces. 2 references, cited by 8 papers here." authors: ["S. Jerrold Kaplan"] year: 1978 venue: "Computational Linguistics" source: "https://aclanthology.org/J78-3037/" licence: "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/kaplan-1978-indirect-responses-loaded-questions/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/kaplan-1978-indirect-responses-loaded-questions/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [1978](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1978/) / Indirect Responses to Loaded Questions # Indirect Responses to Loaded Questions **Authors:** S. Jerrold Kaplan · **Year:** 1978 · **Venue:** [Computational Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/cl/) ([Computational Linguistics 1978](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/cl/1978/)) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/J78-3037/) · [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/J78-3037.pdf) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2075837310) **Citations:** 20 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) · [8](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/kaplan-1978-indirect-responses-loaded-questions/cited-by/) in our library, of the 149,439 papers whose bibliographies we read ## Summary Kaplan addresses a practical gap in natural language (NL) database interfaces. Casual users often hold mistaken beliefs about what a database contains, and these beliefs surface implicitly in how they phrase questions. A system that only returns literal answers ("None", "Zero") quietly confirms such errors. The paper calls this "stonewalling." Drawing on conversational cooperation, the author separates two notions. A **presupposition** is entailed by every direct answer to a question. A broader **presumption** is entailed by all direct answers but one. Asking a question signals that the asker finds its presumptions plausible. The central argument is that many such presumptions can be recovered from the linguistic form of a query. This kind of language-driven inference needs no large hand-built stores of domain knowledge, unlike domain-driven inference. The approach is implemented in **CO-OP**, a cooperative query system whose only knowledge sources are a standard CODASYL database and a lexicon. When a presumption fails, CO-OP replies by correcting the false belief instead of giving an empty answer. The work shows that cooperative, domain-independent behaviour is computationally feasible. ## Key points - **Two types of loaded question.** A presupposition holds under all direct answers. A presumption holds under all but one, as in "Did Sandy pass the prelims?" presuming Sandy sat them. Asking a question built on a belief the asker knows to be false would break the cooperative convention. - **Corrective indirect responses.** When a user asks for the knife-selling departments that also stock blade sharpeners, replying "No departments sell knives" is more cooperative than "None". A CIS500 dialogue illustrates the failure mode: a literal system never reveals that the course was not offered in Spring '77. - **CO-OP system.** It uses only a CODASYL database and a lexicon as world knowledge. Queries are represented in MQL, whose subgraphs are partially ordered. When several corrections apply, CO-OP chooses the minimal failing subgraph. - **Further cooperative behaviours.** These were shown in a demo on a project/sponsor database (NCAR, Nasa Headquarters). CO-OP adds supportive extra information to answers. It offers suggestive alternatives when an answer is negative and no presumption has failed. It also tolerates sloppy reference, for example assuming a single contact where several exist. - **Main claim.** Domain-driven inference must be complemented by language-driven inference. The latter yields efficient, domain-transparent solutions to problems previously thought to require deep world knowledge. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* ## Institutions - [University of Pennsylvania](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/university-of-pennsylvania/) — University, Philadelphia, United States · 221 works · 63,234 citations 📚 Shelves (6): [🖥️ Computer Science](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/) · 16,667 works · [🤖 Artificial Intelligence](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/artificial-intelligence/) · 16,194 works · [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 16,039 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 15,891 works · [🗄️ Information Systems](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/information-systems/) · 1,437 works · [🌐 Computer Networks and Communications](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/computer-networks-and-communications/) · 64 works ## Cite Cite as: S. Jerrold Kaplan. 1978. Indirect Responses to Loaded Questions. Computational Linguistics. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @article{kaplan1978indirect, title = {{Indirect Responses to Loaded Questions}}, author = {S. Jerrold Kaplan}, journal = {Computational Linguistics}, year = {1978}, doi = {10.3115/980262.980296}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3115/980262.980296} } ``` - [← previous Focusing in Dialog](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/grosz-1978-focusing-dialog/) - [next → Internal Grammar in Amharic Place-Names](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/little-1978-internal-grammar-amharic-place-names/) - [↑ back to papers of 1978](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1978/) ## References 2 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. A u s t i n , J.L., HOW TO DO Thin s w i t h Words, Urmson, Ed.,Oxfbrd Un v e r m - Press, N.Y. 1965. -7e J.O. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=A+u+s+t+i+n+%2C+J%2EL%2E%2C+HOW+TO+DO+Thin+s+w+i+t+h+Words%2C+Urmson%2C+Ed%2E%2COxfbrd+Un+v+e+r+m+%2D+Press%2C+N%2EY%2E+1965%2E+%2D7e+J%2EO%2E) 2. Belnap, N , D., and T. B, S t e e l , The o i c of - u e s t i o n s and Answers, YG n l v e r s n y P r e s s , New Haven, Conn., 1976. - G e r r i t s e n , Rob, SEED Re,ference Manual, V e r s i o n COO B04 d r a f t , ~nternation-a Base Systems, Inc., P h i l a d e l p h i a , Pa., 19104, 1978.… [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Belnap%2C+N+%2C+D%2E%2C+and+T%2E+B%2C+S+t+e+e+l+%2C+The+o+i+c+of+%2D+u+e+s+t+i+o+n+s+and+Answers%2C+YG+n+l+v+e+r+s+n+y+P+r+e+s+s+%2C+New+Haven%2C+Conn%2E%2C+1976%2E+%2D+G+e+r+r+i+t+s+e+n+%2C+Rob%2C+SEED+Re%2Cference+Manual%2C+V+e+r+s+i+o+) *Updated 31 October 2026*