This position paper is not based upon direct experience with the design and implementation of a "non-normative" natural language system, but rather draws upon o u r work on c a s c a d e [11] architectures for understanding systems in which syntactic, semantic and discourse processes cooperate to determine the "best" interpretation of an utterance in a given discourse context. The RUS and PSI-KLONE systems [I, 2, 3, 4, 5], which embody some of these principles, provide a strong framework for the development of non-normatlve systems as illustrated by the work of Sondhelmer and Welschedel [8, 9,.
