A frame is a class of predicates that all, in a certain sense, have their argument places laid out the same way, giving rise to the same grammatical behavior.
Semantic frames
A semantic frame is a class of predicates that all have the same amount of argument places, of the same types, in the same order.
The type of an argument place says what kind of thing is allowed to go in there:
c("concrete") means anything goes. Usually concrete arguments like "me" or "cats" or "a house", but also clauses/events if it makes sense.- For example, de's first slot is type
c. One can say dẻ súq (You're beautiful) or dẻ sûaq súq (The event of your singing is beautiful).
- For example, de's first slot is type
0means a place that must be filled with a proposition or event.- Often such slots are filled with a
content clause, or a pronoun referring to one. - In the dictionary, look for the words "that ___ is the case" to recognize these slots.
- Often such slots are filled with a
1means the place must be filled with a property.- Often such slots are filled with a content clause with one ja in it.
- In the dictionary, loook for the words "satisfying property ___" to recognize these slots.
- Often such slots are filled with a
2means the place must be filled with a binary relation.- Often such slots are filled with a content clause with two instances of ja in it.
- In the dictionary, loook for the words "relation ___" to recognize these slots.
- Often such slots are filled with a
Thus, a semantic frame can be identified with its type signature, which is just all the types of the argument places listed in a row — traditionally in parentheses.
For example: leo "tries to" and juoq "should" both take one concrete argument followed by one property argument. This is expressed by the type signature (c 1). These predicates have the same type signature, so they belong to the same semantic frame.
Furthermore, each semantic frame in Toaq has an arbitrary representative chosen for it, used as a handy way to refer to the frame. For example, the semantic frame of all predicates with type signature (c 1) is called the LEO (semantic) frame, which consists of all the predicates whose argument places are just like leo's.
Serial frames
A serial frame is a class of predicates that all exhibit the same serialization behavior.