The COMMERCIAL EVENT frame

We now return to our discussion of Fillmore’s theory of semantic frames. The semantic frame is a knowledge structure required in order to understand a particular word or related set of words. Consider the related group of words buy, sell, pay, spend, cost, charge, tender, change, and so on. Fillmore argues that in order to understand these words, we need access to a COMMERCIAL EVENT frame which provides ‘the background and motivation for the categories which these words represent’ (Fillmore 1982: 116–17). Recall the PURCHASING GOODS frame that we discussed in Chapter 5; this is a subpart of the COMMERCIAL EVENT frame. The COMMERCIAL EVENT frame includes a number of attributes called participant roles which must, at the very least, include BUYER, SELLER, GOODS and MONEY. This skeletal frame is represented in Figure 7.4.

 According to Fillmore, valence is one of the consequences of a frame like this. Valence concerns the ways in which lexical items like verbs can be combined with other words to make grammatical sentences. More precisely, the valence (or argument structure) of a verb concerns the number of participants or arguments required, as well as the nature of the arguments, that is the semantic roles assumed by those participants. For example, buy is typically ‘divalent’ which means that it requires two participants, the BUYER and the GOODS. Pay, on the other hand, is typically ‘trivalent’, which means that it requires three participants: the BUYER, the SELLER and the GOODS. Observe that valence is not a stable feature of verbs, however. Pay could also occur in a sentence with two participants (I paid five hundred pounds) or with four participants (I paid John five pounds for that pile of junk). While buy and pay relate to the actions of the BUYER, buy relates to the interaction between the BUYER and the GOODS, while pay relates to the interaction between the BUYER and the SELLER. This knowledge, which is a consequence of the COMMERCIAL EVENT frame, has consequences for grammatical organisation (recall our discussion of rob and steal in Chapter 5). Consider the following sentences:

The sentences in (1) demonstrate that bought and paid take the same number of arguments. These are realised as subject and object, and optionally as oblique object: an object like from the salesperson which is introduced by a preposition. The verb bought profiles a relation between the participant roles BUYER and GOODS, not a relation between BUYER and SELLER. This explains why the sentence in (1b) is ungrammatical. Of course, if we invoke a SLAVE TRADE frame then (1b) might be acceptable on the interpretation that the salesperson represents the GOODS role. Example (2) shows that the verb pay relates the BUYER role with the SELLER role rather than the GOODS role. In addition, pay can also prompt for a relation between BUYER and AMOUNT PAID, or between BUYER, SELLER and AMOUNT PAID, as illustrated by examples (3) and (4), respectively.

These examples demonstrate that pay relates to that aspect of the COMMERCIAL EVENT frame involving the transfer of money from BUYER to SELLER in order to receive the GOODS. The frame thus provides a structured set of relationships that define how lexical items like pay and buy are understood and how they can be used. As we have seen, this has consequences for the grammatical behaviour of these lexical items. Indeed, frames of this kind have played a central role in the development of Construction Grammar (e.g. Goldberg 1995), to which we return in Part III.

 One way of interpreting the structured set of linguistic relationships licensed by the frame is to analyse the frame as a knowledge representation system that provides a potentially wide range of event sequences. According to this view, the frame provides event-sequence potential. Given that verbs such as buy and sell encode particular kinds of dynamic processes, we can analyse these verbs as designating particular configurations of events. According to this view, the verb selected by the speaker (for example, buy vs. sell vs. pay) designates a particular ‘route’ through the frame: a way of relating the various participant roles in order to highlight certain aspects of the frame. While some ‘routes’ include obligatory relationships (invariant structure), others are optional. For instance, pay designates a relation between BUYER and the SELLER, which has the potential to make optional reference to GOODS and MONEY. However, not all these participant roles need to be mentioned in any given sentence, and when they are not mentioned, they are ‘understood’ as part of the background. For example, in the sentence I paid five pounds, we understand that this event must also have involved a SELLER and some GOODS, even though these are not explicitly mentioned in the sentence. This knowledge derives from our knowledge of the event frame. Table 7.3 summarises the ‘routes’ connecting the participants encoded by verbs that are understood with respect to the COMMERCIAL EVENT frame. Brackets indicate that an element is optional and can therefore be omitted (that is, not explicitly mentioned in the sentence). The symbol Ø indicates that an element cannot be included in the sentence, for example *I spent John five hundred pounds for that pile of junk. ‘I-object’ indicates that an element is the indirect object: the first element in a double object construction like I paid John five hundred pounds for that pile of junk. ‘Oblique’ indicates that an element is introduced by a preposition, like for that pile of junk.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم التطوير يقيم دورة عن أخلاقيات المهنة للمنتسبين الجدد

تتضمن زيارة المراقد المقدسة في كربلاء.. معهد القرآن الكريم النسوي ينظم سفرة دينية لطالباته

المجمع العلمي يحتفي بذكرى ولادة الإمامين الباقر والهادي (عليهما السلام)

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يطلق فعاليات الأسبوع الثالث من برنامج البذرة الصالحة

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

ثورة طبية.. الذكاء الاصطناعي يكشف سرطان الكلى في وقت قياسي

لتعزيز الطاقة والتغلب على التعب.. عليك بـ7 طرق بسيطة

لتحسين الهضم والتحكم في الشهية.. ما أفضل وقت لتناول التمر؟

خبراء يكشفون تأثير الاستحمام في الظلام على جودة النوم !

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

إزالة ثاني أكسيد الكربون من الغلاف الجوي.. ما دور المحيطات والبحار؟

نظائر الهيليوم مقياس لاكتشاف رواسب الذهب.. كيف ذلك؟

الصين تطلق أول ناقلة نفط خام ذكية في العالم تعمل بالميثانول

الزمن على المريخ أسرع من الأرض.. دراسة علمية تكشف الفوارق

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

What is a domain

The theory of domains

Consequences of adopting a frame-based model

Speech event frames

Frames in cognitive psychology

What is a semantic frame?

Frame semantics

The encyclopaedic view

Word meaning versus sentence meaning

Problems with the dictionary view

The dictionary view

Dictionaries versus encyclopaedias