Frame

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Revision as of 13:29, 30 October 2023 by Laqme (talk | contribs) (New article)

A verb's frame is a little "signature" that tells you what arguments can go in what slots, and what happens when the verb is used to make a serial verb.

For example, the frame of sue is c c 1, meaning it has two "concrete" slots, and one "1-ary" property slot that will, in a serial verb, merge away with the subject of the next verb.

A frame consists of as many space-separated glyphs as it has argument slots, and each one describes what can go in that slot:

Frame glyphs
Glyph Meaning Telltale phrase Serial behavior
c "Concrete" (non-property) argument None
0 0-ary relation (proposition) "that ▯ is the case" Merge-into
1 1-ary relation (property) "to satisfy property ▯" Merge-away one
2 2-ary relation (relation) "to be in relation ▯ with" Merge-away two

Coindexation

Sometimes you might see the letters ijkx in a frame. For example, sue's frame is listed as c c 1j in the official dictionary.

The letters i j k refer to the first, second, and third arguments of the verb. They express a "coindexation" between the lambda arguments inside of a property or relation, and the arguments of the verb itself. A 1 slot is followed by one such letter and a 2 by two such letters.

For example, nue is c c 1i, because "xi promises xj to satisfy property P" really means "xi promises to xj that P(xi) will be brought about."

But sue is c c 1j because "xi asks xj to satisfy property P" really means "xi asks of xj that P(xj) be brought about."

And the frame of taq is c 2ii, as "xi is in relation R with itself" really means "xi satisfies R(xi, xi)."

The letter x means that there is no coindexation between the arguments of the verb and the lambda argument. The frame of mıa is c 2ix because the relation is applied between xi and "many things x".