17. The method set forth in claim 2 further including the steps performed in the computer system of: determining whether the step of using the computer system to make a probability determination produces a probability which is above a predetermined threshold that the word/sense pair is lexically appropriate to the given position in the text; and if the indication does not exceed the threshold, making a final determination of the suitable sense by comparing the sense of the word/sense pair with the sense of the word/sense pair resulting from another probability determination of the lexically appropriate sense at another position in the text.
2. A method used in a computer system of determining a probability that a sense for a word is lexically appropriate to a given position in a text accessible to the computer system, the method comprising the steps of: using the computer system to obtain a sequence of words in the text which includes the given position and to store the sequence; and using the computer system to make a probability determination of the probability that the sense specified in a word/sense pair for the word is a sense which is lexically appropriate to the given position, the word-sense pair being stored in the computer system and the probability determination being made by employing a Bayesian discrimination technique involving the words in the sequence and a sense specified in the word/sense pair.