 Computational linguistics is the scientific and engineering discipline concerned with understanding written and spoken language from a computational perspective, and building artifacts that usefully process and produce language, either in bulk or in a dialogue setting. To the extent that language is a mirror of mind, a computational understanding of language also provides insight into thinking and intelligence. And since language is our most natural and most versatile means of communication, linguistically competent computers would greatly facilitate our interaction with machines and software of all sorts, and put at our fingertips, in ways that truly meet our needs, the vast textual and other resources of the internet.