This paper describes a natural language processing system implemented at Hewlett-Packard's Computer Research Center. The system's main components are: a Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG); a top-down parser; a logic transducer that outputs a first-order logical representation; and a "disambiguator" that uses sortal information to convert "normal-form" f i r s t - o r d e r logical expressions into the q u e r y language for HIRE, a relational database hosted in the SPHERE system. We argue that theoretical developments in GPSG syntax and in Montague semantics have specific advantages to bring to this domain.
