Frame Semantics for Verbs
Final Report Abstract
A first result of the project is that the FrameNet approach is faced with serious problems in coming up with a consistent and systematic relational system of frames of different degrees of abstraction. As a practical problem, the present set-up of FrameNet with its lexeme-oriented and example-driven definitions of narrow-domain frames is prone to inconsistencies that could hinder the systematic addition of more abstract frames. It is difficult to build a system of abstract frames on purely empirical grounds. The task of building a general account of semantic frames requires a theoretically motivated theory of frame structure in addition to the empirical data. In Osswald & Van Valin (2014), we sketch such a system of decompositional frames, which allows the transparent representation of subcomponents of events and of attributes of participants. Moreover, we show how decompositional event frames can overcome the limitations of traditional event structure templates concerning the representation of implicit results and of gradual changes along a scale. Finally, our critical analysis of Goldberg's Construction Grammar approach to argument linking based on frame semantics has shown that projectionist accounts combined with decompositional frame-semantics can provide a deeper and typologically more satisfactory explanation of linking phenomena.
Publications
- Frame semantics and lexical decomposition: A case study of cognition verbs. 2nd Conference on Concept Types and Frames in Language, Cognition and Science (CTF09), Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, August 24-26, 2009
Rainer Osswald & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.
- Semantic Factors in Linking Propositional Arguments. Annual Conference of the German Society of Linguistics (DGfS 2009), Universität Osnabrück, March 4-6, 2009
Rainer Osswald, Anja Latrouite & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.
- Semantic Representation and Complement Realization: The Case of ‘Remember’ Revisited. International Conference on Role and Reference Grammar, University of California at Berkeley, August 7-9, 2009
Rainer Osswald & Anja Latrouite
- Achievements and Accomplishments. Colloque international “Representations de l'evenement”, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, October 28-30, 2010
Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.
- Decomposition beyond Event Templates. Colloque international “Representations de l'evenement”, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, October 28-30, 2010
Jens Fleischhauer, Anja Latrouite & Rainer Osswald
- Konstruktion versus Projektion? Argumentrealisierung bei Kognitionsverben des Deutschen und Englischen. International Conference ‚Konstruktionsgrammatik: Neue Perspektiven zur Untersuchung des Deutschen und Englischen‘, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, February 18-20, 2010
Rainer Osswald
- A frame-based semantics of the dative alternation in Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammars. Colloque de Syntaxe et Semantique, Paris. September 21-23, 2011
Laura Kallmeyer & Rainer Osswald
- Achievements, Accomplishments and Scalarity. Workshop on ‘Scalarity in Verb-Based Constructions’, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, April 7-8, 2011
Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.
- (2013) Lexical Representation, Co-composition, and Linking Syntax and Semantics. In J. Pustejovsky et al. (eds.), Advances in Generative Lexicon Theory. Text, Speech and Language Technology, Volume 46. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013, pp 67-10767–108.
Van Valin, R. D., Jr.
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5189-7_4) - (2014) FrameNet, Frame Structure, and the Syntax-Semantics Interface. In T. Gamerschlag et al. (eds.), Frames and Concept Types: Applications in Language and Philosophy. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014, S. 125–156.
Rainer Osswald & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01541-5_6) - (2014) Konstruktion versus Projektion: Argumentrealisierung bei Kognitionsverben des Deutschen und Englischen. In: A. Ziem und A. Lasch (eds.), Grammatik als Netzwerk von Konstruktionen. Berlin: de Gruyter. 2014, S. 313–327.
Rainer Osswald
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110353693.313) - Syntax and Lexicography. In: Tibor Kiss, Artemis Alexiadou (Ed.)
Syntax - Theory and analysis: An International Handbook, Vol. 3. Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015, pp. 1936-2000.
Rainer Osswald
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110363685-017)
