Meaning-Text Models: A Recent Trend in Soviet Linguistics

The Meaning-Text Theory (henceforth MTT) was put forward by Alexander K. Zholkovskyl and the present writer in 1965 (86); 2 years later, a major presentation of the theory appeared (87) and was soon translated into English and then into French. Shortly afterwards, Jurij D. Apresjan joined us, and thus was formed the nucleus of what was called the Moscow Semantic Circle. Over a 10-year period, some 20 people contributed to the work on a Meaning-Text Model of Russian. Basic general readings, in addition to the two titles just mentioned, include (45, 47, 50-52, 56, 67, 88). A number of papers and books dealing with more specific topics will be indicated later. MTT did not flourish officially in the USSR. Its adherents were only rarely and reluctantly admitted to conferences and colloquia; it was never taught at any of the major universities; and the leading professional journals did not accept papers on MTT for publication. The main reasons were that it was so un-Marxist, with its stress on establishing formal correspondences