5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising providing a list of topics in which the topics are associated with corresponding decision procedures for assigning a degree of likelihood to a semantic position, wherein identifying the one or more topics comprises applying the decision procedures associated with the topics in the list to a corresponding semantic position of a portion of the text to determine a degree of likelihood that the corresponding topic should be identified.
5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising providing a list of topics in which the topics are associated with corresponding decision procedures for assigning a degree of likelihood to a semantic position, wherein identifying the one or more topics comprises applying the decision procedures associated with the topics in the list to a corresponding semantic position of a portion of the text to determine a degree of likelihood that the corresponding topic should be identified. 6. The method of claim 5 , wherein applying a decision procedure comprises one of identifying a semantic position of the corresponding topic, identifying a region of the semantic space associated with the corresponding topic, applying a Boolean function, applying a real-valued function, applying an integer-valued function, applying a discrete-valued function, and applying a computer program.