1. An apparatus for performing cursive script recognition comprising: center determining means including a first neural network for determining the spatial location of the centers of individual cursive characters contained within digitized cursive word data; normalization means for defining a left and right edge of a fixed size window based on the spatial location of the centers of the individual cursive characters determined by the center determining means; and recognition means including a second neural network for locating the fixed size window on a segment of the cursive word data, wherein the left side of the window is centered on a first character contained within the segment such that a righthand portion of the first character is located within the window, the right side of the window is centered on a third character contained within the segment such that a lefthand portion of the third character is located within the window, and the center of the window is approximately centered on a second character contained within the segment such that the entire second character is located within the window, and for identifying a class grouping for the first character and a class grouping for the third character based upon similarities in the ligature structures of the righthand portion of the first character, that connect the first character to the second character, and the ligature structures of the lefthand portion of the third character, that connect the third character to the second character, to the ligature structures of characters within the class groupings, and identifying the second character based on a relationship of its ligature structure with respect to the ligature structures of the class groupings identified for the first and third characters.