In contrast with the conceptual relations and UWs that describe the objectivity of a sentence, attributes are designed to describe the subjectivity of a sentence. These attributes show how and when the speaker views what is said and with what intention, feeling, and so on. They convey contextual information on tense, aspect, mood, true value, etc. and co-textual information on focus, emphasis, etc. Such attributes play the role of bridging the conceptual world and the real world in the UNL expressions.
The attributes are divided into seven types:
1. Time with respect to the speaker
2. Aspects
3. Speakerfs view of reference
4. Speakerfs emphasis, focus, topic, etc.
5. Convention
6. Speakerfs attitudes
7. Speakerfs feelings and viewpoints
Basically, groups 1 and 2 consist of the attributes that express information on the tense and aspects of a sentence, while groups 3, 4 and 5 consist of the attributes that express information on a part of a sentence, such as focus, emphasis, etc. The attributes of group 5, in particular, express certain typical structures in a sentence to avoid the complexity of enconverting and deconverting. Groups 6 and 7 consist of the attributes that express information on a whole sentence, such as interrogation, possibility, etc.
In this chapter, each attribute in these groups is described by giving examples and more detailed explanations.