Consequences of adopting a frame-based model
In this section, we briefly explore some of the consequences that arise from adopting a frame-based model of encyclopaedic knowledge.
Words and categories are dependent on frames
A theory based on semantic frames asserts that word meanings can only be understood with respect to frames. Fillmore (1982) provides an example of this, which relates to language change. According to semantic frame theory, words disappear from language once the frame with respect to which they are understood is superseded by a different frame. As Fillmore observes, the word phlogiston (meaning ‘a substance without colour, odour or weight, believed to be given off in burning by all flammable materials’) has now disappeared from the English language. This is because the frame against which the corresponding lexical concept was understood, a theory of combustion developed in the late seventeenth century, had, by the end of the eighteenth century, been shown to be empirically inaccurate. As the frame disappeared, so did the word.
Frames provide a particular perspective
The words coast and shore, while both relating to the strip of land adjacent to the sea, do so with respect to different frames: LAND DWELLING versus SEAFARING. While coast describes the land adjacent to the sea from the perspective of a person on land, shore describes the same strip of land from the perspective of a person out at sea. It follows that a trip from ‘coast to coast’ is an overland trip, while a trip from ‘shore to shore’ entails a journey across the sea or some other body of water. In this way, lexical choice brings with it a particular background frame that provides its own perspective. Fillmore calls this perspective a particular envisionment of the world.
Scene-structuring frames
From the frame semantics perspective, both closed-class and open-class units of language are understood with respect to semantic frames. As Fillmore observes, and as we saw in the previous chapter, cognitive semanticists view open-class semantics as ‘providing the “content” upon which grammatical structure performs a “configuring” function. Thinking in this way, we can see that any grammatical category or pattern imposes its own “frame” on the mate rial it structures’ (Fillmore 1982: 123). For instance, the distinction between active and passive constructions is that they provide access to distinct scene structuring frames. While the active takes the perspective of the AGENT in a sentence, the passive takes the perspective of the PATIENT. This is an idea that we will explore further in Part III of the book when we address conventional schematic meanings associated with closed-class constructions of this kind.
Alternate framing of a single situation
The same situation can be viewed, and therefore linguistically encoded, in multiple ways. For example, someone who is not easily parted from his money could be described either as stingy or as thrifty. Each of these words is under stood with respect to a different background frame which provides a distinct set of evaluations. While stingy represents a negative assessment against an evaluative frame of GIVING AND SHARING, thrifty relates to a frame of HUSBANDRY (management of resources), against which it represents a positive assessment. In this way, lexical choice provides a different way of framing a situation, giving rise to a different construal. In other words, language is rarely ‘neutral’, but usually represents a particular perspective, even when we are not consciously aware of this as language users.
