Cogniac: a discourse processing engine

Graduate Group Chair ii Acknowledgements First off, I have to thank all the teachers who have pounded me into an entity capable of producing a dissertation. The list includes: Mrs. Ludwig for third through sixth grade, Mr. Parsons for seventh through ninth grade, Jay Aravind Joshi. Its nice to think that something came of all the effort these people have put my way. I fortunately had the pleasure of several friends unrelated Penn who entertained me at key points, bolstered waining self-esteem, and just plain dragged me away from my dissertation. They easily added a year to the amount of time it took me to finish-but I still have a head of hair and am only half grey due to their influence. In no particular order, Keith Larson who does a simply dazzling "drop everything, its time to go to the beach", Erica Fletcher who is the only genuine Witch that I know of, Michael McLintock who dragged me bodily to West Virginia for white water trips, Dalran Lindsey iii who made it his business that I should know more about fine wine than I do about discourse processing, Rosemary Rau who badgered me for a year and a half as to whether I could be called "Doctor of Philosophy" yet, Luca Bogoni who runs for the door at the sound of hand cuffs, Jim Gee who has perfect hair, and Gareth Funka-Lea who continually reminds me of the fact that it is very nice to have the company of smart friends-but that it is better with good wine.