Levels of representation
Linguistic models in meaning–text theory operate on the principle that language consists in a mapping from the content or meaning (semantics) of an utterance to its form or text (phonetics). Intermediate between these poles are additional levels of representation at the syntactic and morphological levels. Representations at the different levels are mapped, in sequence, from the unordered network of the semantic representation (SemR) through the dependency tree-structures of the syntactic representation (SyntR) to a linearized chain of morphemes of the morphological representation (MorphR) and, ultimately, the temporally-ordered string of phones of the phonetic representation (PhonR) (not generally addressed in work in this theory). The relationships between representations on the different levels are considered to be translations or mappings, rather than transformations, and are mediated by sets of rules, called "components", which ensure the appropriate, language-specific transitions between levels.Semantic representation
Semantic representations (SemR) in meaning–text theory consist primarily of a web-like semantic structure (SemS) which combines with other semantic-level structures (most notably the semantic-communicative structure emCommS which represents what is commonly referred to as " information structure" in other frameworks). The SemS itself consists of a network of predications, represented as nodes with arrows running from predicate nodes toSyntactic representation
Syntactic representations (SyntR) in meaning–text theory are implemented using dependency trees, which constitute the syntactic structure (SyntS). SyntS is accompanied by various other types of structure, most notably the syntactic communicative structure and the anaphoric structure. There are two levels of syntax in meaning–text theory, the deep syntactic representation (DSyntR) and the surface syntactic representation (SSyntR). A good overview of meaning–text theory syntax, including its descriptive application, can be found in Mel’čuk (1988). A comprehensive model of English surface syntax is presented in Mel’čuk & Pertsov (1987). The deep syntactic representation (DSyntR) is related directly to SemS and seeks to capture the "universal" aspects of the syntactic structure. Trees at this level represent dependency relations between lexemes (or between lexemes and a limited inventory of abstract entities such as lexical functions). Deep syntactic relations between lexemes at DSyntR are restricted to a universal inventory of a dozen or syntactic relations including seven ranked actantial (argument) relations, the modificative relation, and the coordinative relation. Lexemes with purely grammatical function such as lexically-governed prepositions are not included at this level of representation; values of inflectional categories that are derived from SemR but implemented by the morphology are represented as subscripts on the relevant lexical nodes that they bear on. DSyntR is mapped onto the next level of representation by rules of the deep-syntactic component. The surface-syntactic representation (SSyntR) represents the language-specific syntactic structure of an utterance and includes nodes for all the lexical items (including those with purely grammatical function) in the sentence. Syntactic relations between lexical items at this level are not restricted and are considered to be completely language-specific, although many are believed to be similar (or at least isomorphic) across languages. SSyntR is mapped onto the next level of representation by rules of the surface-syntactic component.Morphological representation
Morphological representations (MorphR) in meaning–text theory are implemented as strings of morphemes arranged in a fixed linear order reflecting the ordering of elements in the actual utterance. This is the first representational level at which linear precedence is considered to be linguistically significant, effectively grouping word-order together with morphological processes and prosody, as one of the three non-lexical means with which languages can encode syntactic structure. As with syntactic representation, there are two levels of morphological representation—deep and surface morphological representation. Detailed descriptions of meaning–text theory morphological representations are found in Mel’čuk (1993–2000) and Mel’čuk (2006). The deep morphological representation (DMorphR) consists of strings of lexemes and morphemes—e.g., THE SHOE+ ON BILL+ FOOT+. The deep morphological component of rules maps this string onto the surface morphological representation (SMorphR), converting morphemes into the appropriate morphs and performing morphological operations implementing non-concatenative morphological processes—in the case of our example above, giving us /the shoe+s on Bill+s feet/. Rules of the surface morphological component, a subset of which include morphophonemic rules, map the SMorphR onto a phonetic representation �ə ʃuz on bɪlz fi:tThe lexicon
A crucial aspect of meaning–text theory is the lexicon, considered to be a comprehensive catalogue of the lexical units (LUs) of a language, these units being the lexemes, collocations and otherLexical functions
One important discovery of meaning–text linguistics was the recognition that LUs in a language can be related to one another in an abstract semantic sense and that this same relation also holds across many lexically-unrelated pairs or sets of LUs. These relations are represented in meaning–text theory as lexical functions (LF). An example of a simple LF is Magn(L), which represents collocations used in intensification such as ''heavy rain'', ''strong wind'', or ''intense bombardment''. A speaker of English knows that for a given lexeme L such as RAIN the value of Magn(RAIN) = HEAVY, whereas Magn(WIND) = STRONG, and so on. Meaning–text theory currently recognizes several dozen standard LFs that are known to recur across languages.See also
*References
Further reading
Overviews
* *General
* Žolkovskij, A.K. and Mel’čuk, Igor A. (1965). O vozmožnom metode i instrumentax semantičeskogo sinteza (On a possible method and instruments for semantic synthesis). Naučno-texničeskaja informacija 5, 23–28. * И. А. Мельчук. Опыт теории лингвистических моделей «Смысл ↔ Текст». М., 1974 (2nd ed., 1999). * И. А. Мельчук. Русский язык в модели «Смысл ↔ Текст». Москва-Вена, 1995. * I. A. Mel’čuk. Vers une linguistique Sens-Texte. Leçon inaugurale. P.: Collège de France, Chaire internationale, 1997. * Leo Wanner (ed.), Recent Trends in Meaning-Text Theory. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: J. Benjamins Pub., 1997. , * I.A. Bolshakov, A.F. GelbukhSyntax
* И. А. Мельчук. Поверхностный синтаксис русских числовых выражений. Wien: Wiener Slawistischer Almanach, 1985. * I. A. Mel’čuk & N. V. Pertsov. Surface syntax of English: A formal model within the Meaning-Text framework. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1987. * I. A. Mel’čuk. Dependency syntax: Theory and practice. Albany, NY: SUNY, 1988. , * I. A. Mel’čuk. Actants in Semantics and Syntax. I,II, Linguistics, 2004, 42:1, 1–66; 42:2, 247—291.Morphology
* I. A. Mel'čuk. Cours de morphologie générale, vol. 1–5. Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal/Paris: CNRS Éditions, 1993—2000 * I. A. Mel'čuk. Aspects of the Theory of Morphology. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2006.Lexicography
* I. A. Mel’čuk, A. K. Zholkovsky, Ju. D. Apresjan et al. Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary of Modern Russian: Semantico-Syntactic Studies of Russian Vocabulary / Толково-комбинаторный словарь современного русского языка: Опыты семантико-синтаксического описания русской лексики. Wien: Wiener Slawistischer Almanach, 1984. * I. A. Mel’čuk, A. Clas & A. Polguère. Introduction à la lexicologie explicative et combinatoire. P.: Duculot, 1995. — * I. A. Mel'čuk et al. Dictionnaire explicatif et combinatoire du français contemporain. Recherches lexico-sémantiques IV, Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1999. —External links
Meaning–text software