COMPONENTS OF SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION 
A. E. Klbrik 
Kaf. strukturnoJ I prikladnoJ lingvlstiki 
MGU, 117 234 Moskva, USSR 
The problem of the meaning of the text - the end and 
product of speech activity, Is a central one both for theoret- 
Ical linguistics, and for the applied fields connected with 
itp such as artificial intelligence, question answ6ring, 
man-machlne communication, etc. 
The meaning of the text or, speaking more technically, 
the semantic representation is not, as it has been considered 
until recently , a homogeneous entity, that is why a specific- 
ation of its main dissimilar components may be helpful for 
theoretical and applied investigations. 
Without striving for completeness and systematlcness 
I will enumerate some of thesecomponents. To avoid a possible 
misunderstanding it should be emphasized that I proceed from 
an assumption, which is far from being shared by everyone, 
that the semantic representation of an utterance has to re- 
flect the complete Info~nation pertaining to the proper 
interpretation of thls utterance, In connection with which I 
would regard the opposition of semantics and prsgmatlcs as 
invalid. 
a. Sltustlonal component is that part of the semantic 
representation which is intended (in the norm) of express the 
main information content mapping some external (in relation 
to the message as such and to the speech act) situation. This 
component, undoubtedly, occupies the most prestigious posit- 
ion in the hierarchy of the components. It is no mere chance 
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then that At constantly remains In the centre of attention 
In semantic Investigations, or that the main unit of the 
syntactic level - the sentence, is adopted exactly for its 
expression. 
be Referential component is a relatlonal one;Its funct- 
ion As to co,relate the units of the text with the ideas 
about the units of reality, to identify these units and actual- 
ize the sentence. The semantic reprssentetlon, which lacks a 
referential component, cannot be Interpreted correctly. (The 
typical representatives of referential meanings are articles, 
the categor~of numberjdemonstratlve pronouns.) 
c. Mod~l component, being also relational# correlates a 
proposition with the sxtrallngulstlc situation. This correl- 
ation expresses the degree of the speaker's certainty of 
resllty/lrTealAty of the propositions thecharacter of this 
estimation being, as a matter of fact, continuous but not 
discrete. On the one end of the scale of modallty there is 
the meaning of reallty/irr~alityj on the other - that of un- 
certain~7~ in between them there are various estimations of 
the de~ee of the speaker's certainty in relatlon to reality/ 
/irTeality. (The typical representatlves of modal meanln~s • 
are moods, modal verbs, parenthetic modal words.) 
d. Dalotlc oomDonen~ correlates the content of an utter- 
ance with coordinates of the speech act. Owing to the anthro- 
pc- and egocentrlem of the natural language the orientation 
of an utterance towards the speaker As perceived as the speech 
norm. (The re~Isr means for expressing deictlc meanings are 
the categories of person and tense, formulas of politeness, 
some categories of localization.) 
e. P~cka~ln~ component correlates each utterance as a 
part of the discourse with the whole of the discourse. The 
importance of this component is determined by the basically 
non-linear character of the meaning and bY the compositional 
problems connected wlth this. The non-linear meaning can be 
"stretched" Into s linear string by s great variety of ways, 
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J 
but the arbitrariness of such a choice Is extreemly problem- 
atic. The packaglnE component must not only currently coordin- 
ate the generated message with the previous text, but simul- 
taneously as If control the text from the poInt of view of 
the hearer°s comfort in Its perception. This component par- 
tlally eoincldes with the so called actual division of the 
sentence. (The units of this component ere theme-theme, 
old-new information, contrastlveness, topic, empathy, various 
kinds of anaphorlc expressions, etc. ) 
f. Lo~Igal component correlates, or coordinates, the 
text with the speaker's knowledge of the world, provides the 
transition from the old to the new knowledge, and It Is 
responsible for the meaningfulness of the text. (The essent- 
Ial elements of this component are presuppositions and the 
assertive part of an utterance.) 
g. EmQt~ve component correlates the content with the 
personality of the speaker, with his wishes, evaluations, his 
psychophyulcal condition. (It Is usually, though not alws.Ts, 
expressed by prosody.) 
h. lllocutlonary component correlates the utterance wltk 
the speaker's speech intentions; viz. to Inform the hearer, 
to lnfluenee his behavlour and actions, to stimulate his 
emotional, verbal or intellectual reaction, etc. - @hat Is 
generally connected with the notion of lllocutlonery force. 
What can be deduced from this apparently Incomplete 
• numera t Ion? 
1. It seems that the inability of natural languages to 
express, autonomously and on the surface, various components 
of semantic representation and the resulting necessity to 
amalgamate them, become obvious. It is what happens in the 
functioning of all natural languages, although the degree of 
the autonomy of this or that component can vary. The fact 
that components of semantic representation are not given 
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directly £n the text~ explains why some of them have been 
discovered comparatively late. 
2. This .extended interpretation of the meanAng of the 
text~ which leads to including In the structure of semantic 
~epresentstAon the components enumerated above, proceeds 
f~om s preeumptAon that At As In~ong to regsr~ the meaning of 
the text as given to the speaker. £n advance to be'onl7 
verbally expressed. In the process of a thought-speech act 
the meaning A8 being crested, or formed, that Is fo~ the 
f~not£on£ng model of language the tezlJ_nal components ar~ 
not meaning and text, but thought and (vocal) speech. Unless 
this point of view becomes axAomatAc, many fundamental 
contradictions ,of llngulatAc theory as well as obstacles to 
8olvln~ a nuaber of applied problems, cannot be overcome. 
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