The Use-Mention Distinction and its Importance to HCI
Michael L. Anderson, Yoshi Okamoto, Darsana P. Josyula, Don Perlis · 2002
In this paper wecontend that the ability to engage in meta-dialog is necessary for free and flexible conversation. Central to the possibility of meta-dialog is the ability to recognize and negotiate the distinction between the use and mention of a word. The paper surveys existing theoretical approaches to the use-mention distinction, and briefly describes some of our ongoing efforts to implement a system which represents the use-mention distinction in the service of simple meta-dialog.