We argue for the usefulness of an active chart as the basis of a system that searches for the globally most plausible explanation of failure to syntactically parse a given input. We suggest semantics-free, grammarindependent techniques for parsing inputs displaying simple kinds of ill-formedness and discuss the search issues involved. THE PROBLEM Although the ultimate solution to the problem of processing ill-formed input must take into account semantic and pragmatic factors, nevertheless it is important to understand the limits of recovery strategies that age based entirely on syntax and which are independent of any particular grammar. .
