  This paper proposes an evaluation of the adequacy of the constraint logic
programming paradigm for natural language processing. Theoretical aspects of
this question have been discussed in several works. We adopt here a pragmatic
point of view and our argumentation relies on concrete solutions. Using actual
contraints (in the CLP sense) is neither easy nor direct. However, CLP can
improve parsing techniques in several aspects such as concision, control,
efficiency or direct representation of linguistic formalism. This discussion is
illustrated by several examples and the presentation of an HPSG parser.
