Editing Speech act (section)

=== In multiagent universes ===

[[Multi-agent system]]s sometimes use speech act labels to express the intent of an agent when it sends a message to another agent. For example, the intent "inform" in the message "inform(content)" may be interpreted as a request that the receiving agent adds the item "content" to its knowledge-base; this is in contrast to the message "query(content)", which may be interpreted (depending on the semantics employed) as a request to see if the item content is currently in the receiving agents knowledge base. There are at least two standardisations of speech act labelled messaging [[KQML]] and [[Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents|FIPA]].

KQML and FIPA are based on the Searlian, that is, psychological semantics of speech acts. [[Munindar P. Singh]] has long advocated moving away from the psychological to a social semantics of speech acts—one that would be in tune with Austin's conception.<ref>{{cite web|title=Social and Psychological Commitments in Multiagent Systems|url=http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/mpsingh/papers/mas/fall-symp-91-longer.pdf|access-date=24 April 2013}}</ref> Andrew Jones<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.dcs.kcl.ac.uk/staff/ajijones/| title = Andrew J. I. Jones}}</ref> has also been a critic of the psychological conception. A recent collection of manifestos by researchers in agent communication reflects a growing recognition in the multiagent systems community of the benefits of a social semantics.<ref>{{cite web|title=Research Directions in Agent Communication|url=http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/mpsingh/papers/mas/TIST-13-AC-manifestos.pdf}}</ref>