Language: From Meaning to Text

by Igor Mel'cuk, David Beck (Editor)

Overview

This volume presents a sketch of the Meaning-Text linguistic approach, richly illustrated by examples borrowed mainly, but not exclusively, from English. Chapter 1 expounds the basic idea that underlies this approach-that a natural language must be described as a correspondence between linguistic meanings and linguistic texts-and explains the organization of the book. Chapter 2 introduces the notion of linguistic functional model, the three postulates of the Meaning-Text approach (a language is a particular meaning-text correspondence, a language must be described by a functional model and linguistic utterances must be treated at the level of the sentence and that of the word) and the perspective "from meaning to text" for linguistic descriptions. Chapter 3 contains a characterization of a particular Meaning-Text model: formal linguistic representations on the semantic, the syntactic and the morphological levels and the modules of a linguistic model that link these representations. Chapter 4 covers two central problems of the Meaning-Text approach: semantic decomposition and restricted lexical cooccurrence (y lexical functions); particular attention is paid to the correlation between semantic components in the definition of a lexical unit and the values of its lexical functions. Chapter 5 discusses five select issues: 1) the orientation of a linguistic description must be from meaning to text (using as data Spanish semivowels and Russian binominative constructions); 2) a system of notions and terms for linguistics (linguistic sign and the operation of linguistic union; notion of word; case, voice, and ergative construction); 3) formal description of meaning (strict semantic decomposition, standardization of semantemes, the adequacy of decomposition, the maximal block principle); 4) the Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary (with a sample of complete lexical entries for Russian vocables); 5) dependencies in language, in particular-syntactic dependencies (the criteria for establishing a set of surface-syntactic relations for a language are formulated). Three appendices follow: a phonetic table, an inventory of surface-syntactic relations for English and an overview of all possible combinations of the three types of dependency (semantic, syntactic, and morphological). The book is supplied with a detailed index of notions and terms, which includes a linguistic glossary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781618114563
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	04/30/2016
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Igor Mel'cuk is the author of 44 books and 270 papers on linguistics, including Dependency Syntax (1988), Cours de morphologie ge'ne'rale (5 volumes; 1992-2000), Aspects of the Theory of Morphology (2006), Introduction a la linguistique (3 volumes, coauthored with J. Milic'evic'; 2014), and Semantics (3 volumes; 2012-2104). He is Doctor Honoris Causa of the Besancon University (France), member of the Royal Society of Canada, and corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of two Killam Research Scholarships (1988 and 1989), a John Guggenheim Fellowship (1990), and the Alexander-von-Humboldt Research Award (1991). Mel'cuk was nominated to College de France in 1997 and to Chaire internationale Blaise Pascal (Ecole Normale Supe'rieure, France) in 2002. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Montreal.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments The Author's Foreword Chapter 1. The Problem Stated 1.1 What is natural language and how to describe it? 1.2 Illustrations of some basic notions 1.3 The structure of this book 1.4 Limitations accepted Chapter 2. Functional Modeling in Linguistics 2.1 A model as a means of study and description 2.2 Functional models 2.3 The Meaning-Text model: a global functional linguistic model 2.3.1 Introductory remarks 2.3.2 Three postulates of the Meaning-Text theory 2.3.3 Main formal properties of a Meaning-Text model 2.3.4 Two central notions of the Meaning-Text approach: linguistic meaning and paraphrasing 2.3.5 General characterization of the Meaning-Text approach Chapter 3. An Outline of a Particular Meaning-Text Model 3.1 Deep and surface sublevels of linguistic representations 3.2 Linguistic representations in a Meaning-Text model 3.2.1 Introductory remarks 3.2.2 The semantic structure of a sentence 3.2.3 The deep-syntactic structure of a sentence 3.2.4 The surface-syntactic structure of a sentence 3.2.5 The deep-morphological structure of a sentence 3.2.6 The surface-morphological structure of a sentence 3.2.7 Prelinguistic representation of the world: conceptual representation 3.3 The modules of the Meaning-Text model 3.3.1 Introductory remarks 3.3.2 Semantic module 3.3.2.1 Semantic paraphrasing: rules of the form "Sem Ri = Sem Rj" 3.3.2.2 Semantic transition: rules of the form "Sem Ri - DSynt Rk" 3.3.2.3 Deep-syntactic paraphrasing: rules of the form "DSynt Rk1 = DSynt Rk2" 3.3.3 Deep-syntactic module 3.3.4 Surface-syntactic module 3.3.5 Deep-morphological module 3.3.6 Surface-morphological module Chapter 4. Modeling Two Central Linguistic Phenomena: Lexical Selection and Lexical Cooccurrence 4.1 Modeling lexical selection (paradigmatics): semantic decompositions 4.2 Modeling lexical cooccurrence (syntagmatics): lexical functions 4.3 Correlations between paradigmatic and syntagmatic aspects of lexeme behavior Chapter 5. Meaning-Text Linguistics 5.1 Meaning-Text linguistics and the direction of linguistic description: from meaning to text 5.1.1 Example 1: Spanish "semivowels" 5.1.2 Example 2: Russian binominative sentences 5.2 Meaning-Text linguistics and a linguistic conceptual apparatus 5.2.1 Introductory remarks 5.2.2 Linguistic sign 5.2.3 Word 5.2.4 Cases, ergative construction, voices 5.3 Meaning-Text linguistics and the description of linguistic meaning 5.4 Meaning-Text linguistics and the lexicon: the Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary [= ECD] 5.4.1 Introductory remarks 5.4.2 The three main properties of an ECD 5.4.3 A lexical entry in an ECD: three major zones 5.4.3.1 The semantic zone in an ECD lexical entry 5.4.3.2 The syntactic cooccurrence zone in an ECD lexical entry 5.4.3.3 The semantic derivation and lexical cooccurrence zone in an ECD lexical entry 5.4.4 Two sample lexical entries of a Russian ECD 5.5 Meaning-Text linguistics and dependencies in natural language 5.5.1 Three types of linguistic dependency 5.5.2 Criteria for syntactic dependency Summing Up Appendices Appendix I : Phonetic Table Appendix II: Surface-Syntactic Relations of English Appendix III: Possible Combinations of the Three Types of Linguistic Dependency between Two Lexemes in a Clause Notes References Abbreviations and Notations Subject and Name Index with a Glossary Index of Languages

Editorial Reviews

"Igor Mel'cuk, the former wunderkind of Soviet linguistics, has been working on the formal description of sentence structure for decades, bringing his Meaning-Text model to still greater perfection. As a result, this monograph offers an impressive multi-layered grammar encompassing separate semantic, syntactic, morphological and phonological representations of any sentence to be examined, together with an integrated dictionary that is still unsurpassed in its systematic, all-embracing account of semantic, combinatorial and other properties of vocabulary items. The entire apparatus is based on rigorous formal definitions of all concepts involved. Moreover, unlike in comparable studies, all rules and properties are illustrated by a wealth of diverse typological data. All in all, the present monograph represents the best traditions of mathematical linguistics and may be considered a masterpiece of theoretical precision and methodological rigor, buttressed by a rich empirical underpinning." Daniel Weiss, Professor Emeritus, Slavic Department, University of Zurich "This book should be required reading for every linguist, and if you 'merely' teach a language, you should read it, too. It presents an extraordinary model of how language works, and if you don't know how language works, how on earth can you be a language teacher?" Slava Paperno, Director of the Russian language program, Cornell University "With Language: From Meaning to Text, Igor Mel'cuk offers a healthy concentration of text linguistics that covers core aspects of the study of natural languages, such as linguistic dependencies, semantics-syntax interface, lexical functions for paradigmatic and syntagmatic lexical relations, and the structure of explanatory combinatorial dictionaries. Theoretical considerations are systematically put to the test with a description of linguistic phenomena from a variety of typologically distinct languages. This gem of a book is the perfect entry into text linguistics for the curious mind who expects linguistic theories not to raise problems so much as to provide solutions." Alain Polguere, ATILF CNRS & Universite de Lorraine, Nancy (France)

From the Publisher

Igor Mel’čuk, the former wunderkind of Soviet linguistics, has been working on the formal description of sentence structure for decades, bringing his Meaning-Text model to still greater perfection. As a result, this monograph offers an impressive multi-layered grammar encompassing separate semantic, syntactic, morphological and phonological representations of any sentence to be examined, together with an integrated dictionary that is still unsurpassed in its systematic, all-embracing account of semantic, combinatorial and other properties of vocabulary items. The entire apparatus is based on rigorous formal definitions of all concepts involved. Moreover, unlike in comparable studies, all rules and properties are illustrated by a wealth of diverse typological data. All in all, the present monograph represents the best traditions of mathematical linguistics and may be considered a masterpiece of theoretical precision and methodological rigor, buttressed by a rich empirical underpinning.

Daniel Weiss

This book should be required reading for every linguist, and if you ’merely’ teach a language, you should read it, too. It presents an extraordinary model of how language works, and if you don’t know how language works, how on earth can you be a language teacher?"

Slava Paperno

With Language: From Meaning to Text, Igor Mel’čuk offers a healthy concentration of text linguistics that covers core aspects of the study of natural languages, such as linguistic dependencies, semantics-syntax interface, lexical functions for paradigmatic and syntagmatic lexical relations, and the structure of explanatory combinatorial dictionaries. Theoretical considerations are systematically put to the test with a description of linguistic phenomena from a variety of typologically distinct languages. This gem of a book is the perfect entry into text linguistics for the curious mind who expects linguistic theories not to raise problems so much as to provide solutions."

Alain Polguere