1. A method for use in a processing system for managing a dialogue between the system and a user, the method comprising the steps of: receiving an input signal representing one of speech and text associated with at least a portion of the dialogue; processing a set of frames characterizing a subject of the dialogue, associated with the input signal, each frame including one or more properties that describe a corresponding object which may be referenced during the dialogue, wherein a weight is assigned to each of at least a subset of the properties represented by the set of frames, such that the assigned weights indicate the relative importance of the corresponding properties; utilizing the weights to determine which of a plurality of possible responses the system should generate for a given user input during the dialogue; and generating an output signal for sensory perception by the user representing at least one of the plurality of possible responses.