Playing nomic using a controlled natural language

Abstract

Controlled natural languages have been used in a variety of

domains, to enable information extraction and formal reasoning. One major challenge is that although the syntax

is restricted to enable processing, without a similar restricted domain of application, it is typically difficult to extract

useful results. In this paper we look at the development of a controlled natural language to reason about contractual clauses. The language is used to enable human players to play a variant of Nomic — a game of changing contracts,

whose very nature makes it extremely challenging to mechanise. We present the controlled natural language with

its implementation in the Grammatical Framework, and an underlying deontic logic used to reason about the contracts proposed by the players.