?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=Elephant+2000+-+A+programming+language+based+on+speech+acts&rft.creator=McCarthy%2C+John&rft.subject=Artificial+Intelligence&rft.subject=Language&rft.subject=Philosophy+of+Language&rft.description=Elephant+2000+is+a+proposed+programming+language+good+for+writing+and+verifying+programs+that+interact+with+people+(eg.+transaction+processing)+or+interact+with+programs+belonging+to+other+organizations+(eg.+electronic+data+interchange)++1.+Communication+inputs+and+outputs+are+in+an+I-O+language+whose+sentences+are+meaningful+speech+acts+identified+in+the+language+as+questions%2C+answers%2C+offers%2C+acceptances%2C+declinations%2C+requests%2C+permissions+and+promises.++2.+The+correctness+of+programs+is+partly+defined+in+terms+of+proper+performance+of+the+speech+acts.+Answers+should+be+truthful+and+responsive%2C+and+promises+should+be+kept.+Sentences+of+logic+expressing+these+forms+of+correctness+can+be+generated+automatically+from+the+form+of+the+program.++3.+Elephant+aource+programs+may+not+need+data+structures%2C+because+they+can+refer+directly+to+the+past.+Thus+a+program+can+say+that+an+airline+passenger+has+a+reservation+if+he+has+made+one+and+hasn't+cancelled+it.++4.+Elephant+programs+themselves+can+be+represented+as+sentences+of+logic.+Their+extensional+properties+follow+from+this+representation+without+an+intervening+theory+of+programming+or+anything+like+Hoare+axioms.++5.+Elephant+programs+that+interact+non-trivially+with+the+outside+world+can+have+both+input-output+specification%2C+relating+the+programs+inputs+and+outputs%2C+and+accomplishment+specifications+concerning+what+the+program+accomplishes+in+the+world.+These+concepts+are+respectively+generalizations+of+the+philosophers'+illocutionary+and+perlocutionary+speech+acts.++6.+Programs+that+engage+in+commercial+transactions+assume+obligations+on+behalf+of+their+owners+in+exchange+for+obligations+assumed+by+other+entities.+It+may+be+part+of+the+specification+of+an+Elephant+2000+program+that+these+obligations+are+exchanged+as+intended%2C+and+this+too+can+be+expressed+by+a+logical+sentence.++7.+Human+speech+acts+involve+intelligence.+Elephant+2000+is+on+the+borderline+of+AI%2C+but+the+article+emphasizes+the+Elephant+usages+that+do+not+require+AI.&rft.date=1990&rft.type=Preprint&rft.type=NonPeerReviewed&rft.format=application%2Fpostscript&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F413%2F2%2Felephant.ps&rft.identifier=++McCarthy%2C+John++(1990)+Elephant+2000+-+A+programming+language+based+on+speech+acts.++%5BPreprint%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F413%2F