From TENDUM to SPICOS, or: how flexible is the TENDUM approach to question answering?

It has generally been thought that it would not take too much effort to change or extend the input language and the subject domain of TENDUM. Now that TENDUM is used to form the 'linguistic' core of the SPICOS system, we are in a position to test this idea of flexibility. After a very brief outline of TENDUM we will first analyse the claim; subsequently , we will inquire to what extent it has been confirmed by the SPICOS experience . By way of illustration , imperative constructions ('commands') are dealt with in some detail.