FRAME, PERSPECTIVE AND ATTENTION
The cognitive notion of frame allows us to conceptualize a situation from different perspectives. For instance, Fillmore’s ‘commercial event’ frame for [BUY] includes a reference to four other variables, namely to a BUYER, a SELLER, GOODS and MONEY. A syntactic pattern formulated from the perspective of the BUYER could be as follows:
Tom bought some old CDs from Phil for twenty euros.
In this sentence all four variables of the BUY frame are encoded linguistically, each filling a different syntactic function: the BUYER (Tom) as subject, the GOODS (the CDs) as direct object, the SELLER (Phil) as the first adjunct and the MONEY (for twenty euros) as the second adjunct. This distribution of syntactic functions is the syntactic perspective, which here is largely controlled by the choice of the verb BUY.
Within the same frame, it would be easy to take a different perspective by choosing another related verb such as SELL, CHARGE or PAY. The verb sell perspectivises SELLER and GOODS as subject and object, charge also perspectivises the SELLER as subject but the BUYER as object, and pay perspectivises the BUYER and MONEY, with the SELLER as optional indirect object.
Phil sold some old CDs to Tom for twenty euros.
Phil charged Tom twenty euros for some of his old CDs.
Tom paid Phil twenty euros for some old CDs.
The notion of perspective draws on the cognitive ability to direct one’s attention. To a large degree, we conceptualize events in different ways according to what attracts our attention. As language users, we use the verb buy when describing a commercial event in order to draw attention to the BUYER and the GOODS, functioning as subject and object respectively. We use the verb sell to focus attention on the SELLER and the GOODS. By means of the frame we can even call up cognitive categories that had no prominence and were not expressed (though they were implied) in the frame itself, for instance SPEND and COST. These can be externalized in sentences such as the following:
Tom spent twenty euros on some old CDs
The old CDs cost Tom twenty euros.
