I think, perhaps, I am trying to envision linguistic crutches. To take a computer, which is hardly able to talk, and change its circumstance, so that it can use what little linguistic aptitude it has, and use with it the leverage of a linguistic crutch to get through the sentences and statements.
Or, let me try another analogy: Imagine you take a trip to the Himalayas, and you would like to describe what you saw to an illiterate deaf man. Without your faculties of language, you cannot describe it. Without a camera you cannot show him pictures. But you can use a pencil and paper to draw simple lines that can convey enough information to give the man a sense of where you are. I would like to provide a computer with such a pencil and paper.
Blah, that's not exactly right. Because I want the computer to converse in some way that makes use of our linguistic talents. Hmm......