View source for Frame semantics (linguistics)

{{Refimprove|date=September 2014}}
'''Frame semantics''' is a theory of [[Linguistics|linguistic]] [[Meaning (linguistics)|meaning]] developed by [[Charles J. Fillmore]]<ref>Fillmore, Charles J., and Collin F. Baker. "[https://course.ccs.neu.edu/csg224/resources/framenet/framenet.pdf Frame semantics for text understanding]." Proceedings of WordNet and Other Lexical Resources Workshop, NAACL. 2001.</ref> that extends his earlier [[case grammar]]. It relates [[natural language|linguistic]] [[semantics]] to [[encyclopedic]] knowledge. The basic idea is that one cannot understand the meaning of a single word without access to all the essential knowledge that relates to that word. For example, one would not be able to understand the word "sell" without knowing anything about the situation of commercial transfer, which also involves, among other things, a seller, a buyer, goods, money, the relation between the money and the goods, the relations between the seller and the goods and the money, the relation between the buyer and the goods and the money and so on. Thus, a word activates, or evokes, a frame of semantic knowledge relating to the specific concept to which it refers (or highlights, in frame semantic terminology).

The idea of the encyclopedic organisation of knowledge itself is old and was discussed by [[Age of Enlightenment]] philosophers such as [[Denis Diderot]]<ref name="d'Alembert_1995">{{cite book |last=d'Alembert |first=J. L. R. |year=1995| title=Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0024074003 }}</ref> and [[Giambattista Vico]].<ref name="Mazzotta_2014">{{cite book |last=Mazzotta |first=Giuseppe |year=2014| title=The New Map of the World: the Poetic Philosophy of Giambattista Vico |publisher=Princetpn University Press |isbn=9781400864997 }}</ref> Fillmore and other [[Evolutionary linguistics|evolutionary]] and [[Cognitive linguistics|cognitive linguists]] like [[John Haiman]] and [[Adele Goldberg (linguist)|Adele Goldberg]], however, make an argument against [[generative grammar]] and [[truth-conditional semantics]]. As is elementary for Lakoffian–Langackerian Cognitive Linguistics, it is claimed that knowledge of ''language'' is no different from other types of knowledge; therefore there is no grammar in the traditional sense, and language is not an independent [[cognitive function]].<ref name="Dirven_2010">{{cite book |last=Dirven |first=René |editor-last=Malmkjaer | editor-first=Kirsten  |year=2010| title=The Routledge Linguistics Encyclopedia. 3rd edition |publisher=Routledge | chapter=Cognitive linguistics |url=http://www.academia.edu/download/37424835/Malmkjaer.The_Routledge_Linguistics_Encylopedia.pdf |pages=61–68 |isbn=978-0-203-87495-0 |access-date=2020-06-15}}{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Instead, the spreading and survival of linguistic units is directly comparable to that of other types of units of [[cultural evolution]], like in [[memetics]] and other cultural [[Replicator (evolution unit)|replicator]] theories.<ref name=Kirby_2013>{{cite book |last=Kirby|first=Simon |editor-last1=Binder |editor-last2=Smith|year=2013| title=The Language Phenomenon | chapter=Transitions: the evolution of linguistic replicators |publisher=Springer|url=http://www.labex-whoami.fr/images/documents/kirby_Labex_JC_paper.pdf |pages=121–138 |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-36086-2_6 |access-date=2020-03-04}}</ref><ref name=Zehentner_2019>{{cite book |last=Zehentner |first=Eva |year=2019| title=Competition in Language Change: the Rise of the English Dative Alternation |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-3-11-063385-6 }}</ref><ref name="MacWhinney_2015">{{cite book |last=MacWhinney |first=Brian|editor-last1=MacWhinney |editor-first1=Brian |editor-last2=O'Grady |editor-first2=William|title=Handbook of Language Emergence |publisher=Wiley |date=2015 |pages=1–31 |chapter= Introduction – language emergence |isbn= 9781118346136 }}</ref>

==Use in cognitive linguistics and construction grammar==

The theory applies the notion of a [[semantic frame]] also used in [[artificial intelligence]], which is a collection of facts that specify "characteristic features, attributes, and functions of a denotatum, and its characteristic interactions with things necessarily or typically associated with it."<ref>Keith Alan (2001, p. 251), Natural Language Semantics, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford, {{ISBN|0-631-19296-4}}.</ref>
A semantic frame can also be defined as a [[Coherentism|coherent structure]] of related concepts that are related such that without knowledge of all of them, one does not have complete knowledge of any one; they are in that sense types of [[Gestalt psychology|gestalt]]. Frames are based on recurring experiences, therefore the commercial transaction frame is based on recurring experiences of commercial transactions.

Words not only highlight individual concepts, but also specify a certain perspective from which the frame is viewed. For example "sell" views the situation from the perspective of the seller and "buy" from the perspective of the buyer. This, according to Fillmore, explains the observed asymmetries in many [[lexical semantics|lexical relations]].

While originally only being applied to [[lexeme]]s, frame semantics has now been expanded to [[grammatical construction]]s and other larger and more complex linguistic units and has more or less been integrated into [[construction grammar]] as the main semantic principle. Semantic frames are also becoming used in [[information model]]ing, for example in [[Gellish]], especially in the form of 'definition models' and 'knowledge models'.

Frame semantics has much in common with the semantic principle of profiling from [[Ronald Langacker|Ronald W. Langacker]]'s [[cognitive grammar]].<ref>Alan Cruse (2004, p. 137f.), Meaning in Language. An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics. Second Edition, Oxford University Press, New York, {{ISBN|978-0-19-926306-6}}.</ref>

The concept of frames has been several times considered in philosophy and [[psycholinguistics]], namely supported by [[Lawrence W. Barsalou]],<ref>Barsalou, Lawrence W. 1992. "[http://barsaloulab.org/Online_Articles/1992-Barsalou-chap-frames.pdf Frames, concepts, and conceptual fields]". In Frames, fields, and contrasts, ed. Adrienne Lehrer and Eva Feder Kittay, 21–74. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.</ref> and more recently by Sebastian Löbner.<ref>Sebastian Löbner (2014), "[https://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/Institute/Allgemeine_Sprachwissenschaft/Loebner/Loebner_Evidence_for_frames_ms.pdf Evidence for Frames from Human Language]", in Thomas Gamerschlag, Doris Gerland, Rainer Osswald, and Wiebke Petersen, editors, Frames and Concept Types, pp. 23–67, Springer, Dordrecht.</ref> They are viewed as a cognitive representation of the real world. From a [[computational linguistics]] viewpoint, there are semantic models of a sentence. This approach going further than just the lexical aspect is especially studied in SFB 991 in [[Düsseldorf]].

==Applications==

[[Google]] originally started a frame semantic [[parser]] project that aims parse the information on [[Wikipedia]] and transfer it into [[Wikidata]] by coming up with relevant relations using [[artificial intelligence]].<ref>{{Citation|title=SLING - A natural language frame semantics parser|date=2021-11-14|url=https://github.com/google/sling|publisher=Google|access-date=2021-11-14}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Conceptual space]]
* [[Figurative system of human knowledge]]
* [[FrameNet]]
* [[Formal semantics (natural language)]]
* [[Frame language]]
*[[Metaphorical framing]]
* [[Prototype theory]]
* [[Universal Darwinism]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081011151551/http://acl.ldc.upenn.edu/C/C90/C90-3005.pdf A Karaka Based Approach to Parsing of Indian Languages]
* [http://ai.googleblog.com/2017/11/sling-natural-language-frame-semantic.html Google AI Blog: SLING: A Natural Language Frame Semantic Parser]
* [https://frames.phil.uni-duesseldorf.de/ DFG Collaborative Research Centre 991: The Structure of Representations in Language, Cognition, and Science]
* [https://course.ccs.neu.edu/csg224/resources/framenet/framenet.pdf Frame Semantics for Text Understanding] by Charles J. Fillmore and Collin F. Baker, 2001

{{Formal semantics}}

[[Category:Cognitive linguistics]]
[[Category:Formal semantics (natural language)]]
[[Category:Memetics]]