FrameNet Project Overview: The Quest for Semantic Descriptions

1. FrameNet ++ The Quest for the Right Description of Semantics and Usage in the Lexicon OR Things Are Always More Complicated than You Think

3. Project Overview • National Science Foundation funding • Resources: • British National Corpus, some other corpora • Specialized software tools, largely home-grown • Product: • Frame-based descriptions of “words” • Detailed, manually-applied semantic tagging of naturally-occurring sentences

4. What’s it for? • Natural language processing • Word sense disambiguation • Question answering • Text understanding • 2nd language learners • Dictionary makers

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6. Our Description of Frames • Simple text definition • Frame elements • Lexical units • Frame-to-frame relationships

7. Example 1: Color • Question: What are the frame elements? • Frame Net is data driven, so we look at the data (i.e. real sentences) to find out…

8. (From BNC) 1. At once they were all around her , perching up on their hindlegs like scrawny otters in <BLACK> leather and chrome earbands . 2. For the moment I am concentrating mostly on the fact that I am riding under the Arctic sky , a very <BLACK> sky , heavily overcast , being pulled across the ice by a team of dogs . 3. The stage goes pitch <BLACK> , The black resolves itself to moonlight , by which HAMLET approaches the sleeping ROS and GUIL . 4. His eyes seemed intensely <BLACK> , like space itself ; cold , vacant , all trace of life and warmth gone from them . 5. ` Golly , they say it 's about eight feet tall , <BLACK> as pitch , covered in scales , breathing brimstone and smashing in the top of the army tank . " 6. Our ceiling 's <BLACK> from frying chips . 7. All the walls were <BLACK> on the inside .

9. Resulting Definition A Color serves as a landmark in color-space, either a point-like landmark (e.g. burnt sienna ) or a broader region (e.g. blue ). Especially when the Color designates a broad region in color-space, it may be defined with a specific Type , further specified by comparison to the color of a Comparand , modified by a Color_qualifier , or evaluated with a Descriptor . All color words are generally used to specify the color of some (physical) Entity .

10. Example 2: Perception • How many frames do we have? • What are the frame elements?

11. Breaking Things • How many frames are there? • What are the frame elements?

12. BREAKING THINGS:(Data from the BNC) 1. At least 40 people were killed in Bamako on 22 March after a student demonstration was stopped by the security forces and rioting<broke> out . 2. Then , the artistic aims of members of the group were quite varied , and some personal animosities caused the alliance to <break> up . 3. Justin goes back to England for a while , and then , having <broken> somehearts , arrives in the Sudan to perform his own suicide . 4. Its withers will never win any of the races Ronnie had been tellinghimself about , and he is reluctant to return from this long , defeated ,dark-thoughted walk to <break> the bad news or his adventure to his wife and daughters . 5. He has just <broken> one of his records deliberately and is on his knees picking up the pieces as he talks to himself .  

13. 6. ... playing female parts at school -- until my voice <broke> . 7. Once the blockade of the river leading into the city was <broken> byEnglish ships , James and his besiegers lost heart and abandoned the siege . 8. There can be no question that the bishops are not in any way aware of this arrogation , as it is mediated in consciousness by their belief in , and conceptualization of , a static natural law which is accessible , even if with difficulty , to the conscience of everyman ; which same natural law no one should be allowed to violate , even if in error , when that law , if <broken> , is seen to threaten the very moral fabric of society . 9. They can make or <break> a chef . 10. It was the foreigner who <broke> the ice . 11. He inhaled sourly and <broke> into a glutinous cough . 12. She had <broken> her neck . 13. The young man had <broken> the spell . 14. Are you completely <broke> at the moment , or ... 15. Compassion 's an interesting word -- when you <break> it down it literally means ` to suffer with " .

14. 16. If such a risk is accepted , sooner or later the cable will <break> at the wrong moment and an accident will occur . 17. But Woodstock and the sunshine hippies <broke> through the clouds of small-town standards , and Jay scoured the Oxfam shop for silk and satin and velvet . 18. Desiccated liver is approximately 80% protein and is easily <broken> down and absorbed by the stomach . 19. Mark Raggett , a businessman spearheading the effort , said : ` If I was to take some of these materials and technologies back to the Soviet Union , I would probably be <breaking> the law . " 20. When the ovens <broke> down it cost more than £1,200 a week to buy in the necessary items

15. The End Michael Ellsworth, FrameNet lackey ellswomj@socrates.berkeley.edu