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<Paper uid="C82-2036">
  <Title>COMPONENTS OF SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION</Title>
  <Section position="1" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="abstr">
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COMPONENTS OF SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION
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    <Paragraph position="0"> 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.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> 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 specification of its main dissimilar components may be helpful for theoretical and applied investigations.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> 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 reflect 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.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> 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 position in the hierarchy of the components. It is no mere chance - 154 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.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> be Referential component is a relatlonal one;Its function As to co,relate the units of the text with the ideas about the units of reality, to identify these units and actualize 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 correlation 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 uncertain~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 utterance with coordinates of the speech act. Owing to the anthropc- 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 &amp;quot;stretched&amp;quot; Into s linear string by s great variety of ways,</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6"> but the arbitrariness of such a choice Is extreemly problematic. The packaglnE component must not only currently coordinate the generated message with the previous text, but simultaneously as If control the text from the poInt of view of the hearerdegs comfort in Its perception. This component partlally 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.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="7"> 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 - 156.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="8"> directly PSn the text~ explains why some of them have been discovered comparatively late.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="9"> 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. PSn 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~notPSonPSng 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. - 157 -</Paragraph>
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