Frame Elements
External FEs
- External FEs are realized outside of the maximal phrase headed by the target lexeme.
- Externals satisfy an FE requirement of a target word in the following syntactic contexts:
-
subjects of finite target verbs, A Juan le encanta [la paella]External (John loves paella) or target nouns and adjectives, by virtue of their grammatical relation to a support verb, such as the subjects of [El presidente]External les dio un ultimátum a los terroristas (The president gave the terrorists an ultimatum), [Venezuela]External es rica en tradiciones (lit. Venezuela is rich in traditions), etc.;
-
subjects (or objects) of controlling structures, [Los políticos]External decidieron bajar los impuestos (Politicians decided to lower taxes), [Le]External obligaron a firmar el contrato (They forced him to sign the contract);
- "extracted" constituents, etc.
Implicit FEs
-
Some FEs are conceptually "understood", but are not expressed in relevant positions in the sentence. In order for example sentences representing the same valence to be grouped together automatically, we introduced tags to bear the annotation for the missing FEs. We distinguish three types of Implicit FEs, Existential, Anaphoric, and Constructionally Licensed:
-
Existential implicit FEs include the missing objects of ¿Ya has comido? (Have you eaten yet?) and Bebes demasiado (You drink too much).
-
Anaphoric implicit FEs include the missing objects of Ellos decidirán (They'll decide) and ¿Comprendes? (Do you understand?).
-
Constructionally licensed omissions, e.g., subject null instantiation, the implicit subjects of imperatives, "patients" of passive sentences, etc.
Conflated FEs
-
Many lexemes that can express several FEs as separate constituents can also express them as single constituents in which information about two FEs is conflated. In Le han nombrado director general (They have named him general director) the person and the office show up as separate constituents; but in Han nombrado al director general (They named the general director) we find a single constituent identifying both.
Incorporated FEs
-
We sometimes find FEs which are typically expressed as separate constituents in the valence patterns of one lexeme, but are typically incorporated in other lexemes in the same frame. For example, in the Shoot projectiles frame, the Firearm is a separate constituent in Les dispararon con una ametralladora (They shot at them with a machine gun), but incorporated in Les ametrallaron (They machinegunned them).
