The DUMAS project constructs a generic framework for the development of multilingual speech-based dialogues systems. As an initial test of the generic framework we will build a mobile phone-based e-mail interface whose functionality can be adapted to different users, different situations and tasks. The paper describes the semantic processing which we envision needed in that type of system, for the actual e-mail system commands on the one hand, and for extracting knowledge from the e-mails at such on the other.