Studies of natural dialogue indicate that people interact according to established patterns which are organized around the participants' goals. These patterns have been represented by a set of knowledge structures called "Dialogue-games" which are founded on conventional knowledge about communication and its uses to achieve goals. The "Parameters" of a Dialogue-game represent elements that vary across instances of a particular pattern, and the "Specifications" of these parameters represent the conditions which must be present for a particular Dialogue-game to be employed successfully. The "Components" are the expected sequence of intermediate states that occur during an instance of a particular conventional pattern. Representations of several Dialogue-games are presented, and a process model is discussed. (Author/WBC)