# US 2021/0240935 A1 · Management of a focused information sharing dialogue based on discourse trees > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2021/0240935 A1 - Document ID: US20210240935A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 17/235,329 - Filed: 2021-04-20 - Published: 2021-08-05 - Earliest claimed: 2017-09-28 - Assignees: Oracle International Corporation - Applicants: Oracle International Corporation - Inventors: Boris Galitsky - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210240935A1 ## CPC - G06F 40/295: Named entity recognition - G06F 16/00: Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor - G06F 16/9014: {hash tables} - G06F 16/90332: {Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems} - G06F 40/211: Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars - G06F 40/253: Grammatical analysis; Style critique - G06F 40/289: Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking - G06F 40/30: Semantic analysis - G06F 40/35: Discourse or dialogue representation - G06N 5/01: Dynamic search techniques; Heuristics; Dynamic trees; Branch-and-bound - G06N 5/022: Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition - G06N 5/041: {Abduction} - G06N 20/00: Machine learning - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) - G06N: COMPUTING ARRANGEMENTS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS ## Abstract Disclosed techniques relate to managing a dialogue between a user device and an autonomous agent. For instance, a computing device creates a discourse tree from a body of text that includes fragments. The discourse tree includes a root node, nonterminal nodes, and terminal nodes. Each nonterminal node represents a rhetorical relationship between two of the fragments and each terminal node is associated with one of the fragments. The computing device determines a main topic of the body of text from the discourse tree. The computing device provides the main topic to the user device, and in response, receives a user utterance. The computing device determines an intent from the user utterance and navigates the discourse tree to locate relevant information consistent with the intent. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computer-implemented method for navigating text using discourse trees, the method comprising: creating a discourse tree from text comprising fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a root node, nonterminal nodes, and terminal nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the fragments, and each terminal node is associated with one of the fragments, wherein the fragments are elementary discourse units; determining, from the discourse tree, a subset of terminal nodes that are (i) associated with a nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship of type elaboration and (ii) associated with a nucleus elementary discourse unit of the elaboration; calculating, for each node of the subset of terminal nodes, a respective path length from the root node; identifying, from the subset of terminal nodes, a topic node having a path length that is a smallest path length of the path lengths; determining, from the topic node, a topic of the discourse tree by extracting a noun phrase from the nucleus elementary discourse unit associated with the topic node; and providing the topic to a user device. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying, in the discourse tree, a satellite elementary discourse unit associated with the topic node via the rhetorical relationship of type elaboration; and providing text associated with the satellite elementary discourse unit to the user device. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying, in the discourse tree, an additional terminal node from the subset of terminal nodes, the additional terminal node having an additional path length equal to or greater than the path length; extracting additional text from an additional nucleus elementary discourse unit associated with the additional terminal node; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: navigating, in the discourse tree, to an additional non-terminal node that is connected to the topic node and represents an additional rhetorical relation; determining, from the additional non-terminal node, an additional topic by extracting an additional noun phrase from an additional nucleus elementary discourse unit associated with additional non-terminal node; and responsive to determining that the additional rhetorical relation is one of type elaboration, condition, or temporal sequence: extracting additional text from the additional nucleus elementary discourse unit; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the user device, an utterance; determining that the utterance indicates familiarity with additional topic; identifying, in the discourse tree, an additional non-terminal node that comprises text representing the additional topic and represents an additional rhetorical relation; responsive to determining that the additional rhetorical relation is one of type elaboration, condition, or contrast: extracting additional text from an elementary discourse unit associated with a terminal node that is connected to the additional terminal node; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the user device, an utterance; determining that the utterance comprises a confirmation of an interest in an additional topic; identifying, in the discourse tree, an additional non-terminal node that comprises text representing the additional topic and represents an additional rhetorical relation; extracting additional text from an elementary discourse unit associated with a terminal node that is connected to the additional non-terminal node; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the user device, an utterance; determining that the utterance comprises a request for additional details related to the topic; and responsive to the determining: identifying, in the discourse tree, a parent node directly connected to the topic node; identifying, in the discourse tree, an additional terminal node that is related to the parent node via a rhetorical relation of type elaboration; extracting additional text from an elementary discourse unit associated with the additional terminal node; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the user device, an utterance; determining that the utterance comprises a question that is unrelated to the topic; and responsive to the determining: identifying one or more keywords from the utterance; identifying an additional text by providing a query comprising the keywords to a search engine; and providing text from one or more elementary discourse units of the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: forming, from the discourse tree, a communicative discourse tree that represents the text by matching each fragment that has a verb to a respective verb signature; identifying, from the communicative discourse tree, a verb signature that corresponds to the topic node; extracting a subject from the verb signature; and providing the subject to the user device. ### Claim 10 A system comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable program instructions; and a processing device communicatively coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium for executing the computer-executable program instructions, wherein executing the computer-executable program instructions configures the processing device to perform operations comprising: creating a discourse tree from text comprising fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a root node, nonterminal nodes, and terminal nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the fragments, and each terminal node is associated with one of the fragments, wherein the fragments are elementary discourse units; determining, from the discourse tree, a subset of terminal nodes that are (i) associated with a nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship of type elaboration and (ii) associated with a nucleus elementary discourse unit of the elaboration; calculating, for each node of the subset of terminal nodes, a respective path length from the root node; identifying, from the subset of terminal nodes, a topic node having a path length that is a smallest path length of the path lengths; determining, from the topic node, a topic of the discourse tree by extracting a noun phrase from the nucleus elementary discourse unit associated with the topic node; and providing the topic to a user device. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: identifying, in the discourse tree, a satellite elementary discourse unit associated with the topic node via the rhetorical relationship of type elaboration; and providing text associated with the satellite elementary discourse unit to the user device. ### Claim 12 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: identifying, in the discourse tree, an additional terminal node from the subset of terminal nodes, the additional terminal node having an additional path length equal to or greater than the path length; extracting additional text from an additional nucleus elementary discourse unit associated with the additional terminal node; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 13 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: navigating, in the discourse tree, to an additional non-terminal node that is connected to the topic node and represents an additional rhetorical relation; determining, from the additional non-terminal node, an additional topic by extracting an additional noun phrase from a nucleus elementary discourse unit associated with additional non-terminal node; and responsive to determining that the additional rhetorical relation is one of type elaboration, condition, or temporal sequence: extracting additional text from the additional nucleus elementary discourse unit; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 14 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the user device, an utterance; determining that the utterance indicates familiarity with additional topic; identifying, in the discourse tree, an additional non-terminal node that comprises text representing the additional topic and represents an additional rhetorical relation; responsive to determining that the additional rhetorical relation is one of type elaboration, condition, or contrast: extracting additional text from an elementary discourse unit associated with a terminal node that is connected to the additional non-terminal node; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 15 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the user device, an utterance; determining that the utterance comprises a confirmation of an interest in an additional topic; identifying, in the discourse tree, an additional non-terminal node that comprises text representing the additional topic and represents an additional rhetorical relation; extracting additional text from an elementary discourse unit associated with a terminal node that is connected to the additional non-terminal node; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 16 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: forming, from the discourse tree, a communicative discourse tree that represents the text by matching each fragment that has a verb to a respective verb signature; identifying, from the communicative discourse tree, a verb signature that corresponds to the topic node; extracting a subject from the verb signature; and providing the subject to the user device. ### Claim 17 A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable program instructions that when executed by a processor, perform operations comprising: creating a discourse tree from text comprising fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a root node, nonterminal nodes, and terminal nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the fragments, and each terminal node is associated with one of the fragments, wherein the fragments are elementary discourse units; determining, from the discourse tree, a subset of terminal nodes that are (i) associated with a nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship of type elaboration and (ii) associated with a nucleus elementary discourse unit of the elaboration; calculating, for each node of the subset of terminal nodes, a respective path length from the root node; identifying, from the subset of terminal nodes, a topic node having a path length that is a smallest path length of the path lengths; determining, from the topic node, a topic of the discourse tree by extracting a noun phrase from the nucleus elementary discourse unit associated with the topic node; and providing the topic to a user device. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise: navigating, in the discourse tree, to an additional non-terminal node that is connected to the topic node and represents an additional rhetorical relation; determining, from the additional non-terminal node, an additional topic by extracting an additional noun phrase from a nucleus elementary discourse unit associated with additional non-terminal node; and responsive to determining that the additional rhetorical relation is one of type elaboration, condition, or temporal sequence: extracting additional text from the additional nucleus elementary discourse unit; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 19 (depends on 17) The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the user device, an utterance; determining that the utterance indicates familiarity with additional topic; identifying, in the discourse tree, an additional non-terminal node that comprises text representing the additional topic and represents an additional rhetorical relation; responsive to determining that the additional rhetorical relation is one of type elaboration, condition, or contrast: extracting additional text from an elementary discourse unit associated with a terminal node that is connected to the additional non-terminal node; and providing the additional text to the user device. ### Claim 20 (depends on 17) The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the user device, an utterance; determining that the utterance comprises a confirmation of an interest in an additional topic; identifying, in the discourse tree, an additional non-terminal node that comprises text representing the additional topic and represents an additional rhetorical relation; extracting additional text from an elementary discourse unit associated with a terminal node that is connected to the additional non-terminal node; and providing the additional text to the user device.