FrameNet ++

The Quest for the Right Description of Semantics and Usage in the

Lexicon

OR

Things Are Always More Complicated than You Think

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

What’s it for?

• Natural language processing– Word sense disambiguation– Question answering– Text understanding

• 2nd language learners

• Dictionary makers

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Our Description of Frames

• Simple text definition

• Frame elements

• Lexical units

• Frame-to-frame relationships

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…

(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 .

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 .

Example 2: Perception

• How many frames do we have?

• What are the frame elements?

Breaking Things

• How many frames are there?

• What are the frame elements?

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 .  

6. ... playing female parts at school -- until my voice <broke> . 7. Once the blockade of the river leading into the city was <broken> by

English 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 " .

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

The End

Michael Ellsworth,

FrameNet lackey

ellswomj@socrates.berkeley.edu