The Computational Linguistics group works on analyzing language and modeling linguistic processes. Human language is very effective at encoding and communicating information, fundamental to our way of perceiving and interacting with the world. Yet the existing models of language fall short of explaining various aspects of its functioning, or of enabling computers to deal adequately with linguistic content. The PULS project builds systems for news surveillance, which aim to extract factual information from on-line news streams. The systems' goal is to understand meaning in text, to provide maximum utility to the end-user, as well as to enhance the base of background knowledge. Etymon is a project on modeling the relationships within a language family, and the etymological processes that underlie language evolution.