Frames of Understanding in Text and Discourse

Abstract

How do words mean? What is the nature of meaning? How can we grasp a word’s meaning? The frame-semantic approach developed in this book offers some well-founded answers to such long-standing, but still controversial issues. Following Charles Fillmore’s definition of frames as both organizers of experience and tools for understanding, the monograph attempts to examine one of the most important concepts of Cognitive Linguistics in more detail. The point of departure is Fillmore’s conception of “frames of understanding” – an approach to (cognitive) semantics that Fillmore developed from 1975 to 1985. The envisaged Understanding Semantics (“U-Semantics”) is a semantic theory sui generis whose significance for linguistic research cannot be overestimated. In addition to its crucial role in the development of the theoretical foundations of U-semantics, corpus-based frame semantics can be applied fruitfully in the investigation of knowledge-building processes in text and discourse.

Bonding across Chinese social media

“…In discourse analysis, the knowledge of conventional meanings as default values within a particular community triggers certain conceptualizations at both abstract (conventional) and specific (contextual) levels. When we link a linguistic form with a linguistic context, we may also inferentially activate a mental frame with predefined default values (Ziem 2014). The language play under study seems to manifest the poster's manipulation or employment of frame(s) in an ostensive way.…”

A visão enciclopédica dos frames semânticos

“…Um desses trabalhos que merece destaque é o de Ziem (2014), que parte do conceito de frame como um ato cognitivo de referenciação. Para o autor, "Uma expressão se refere a uma unidade cognitiva ao evocar um frame, o qual então abre uma área de referência potencial" (ZIEM, 2014, p. 251) 9 .…”

The History of Three Sentences. Internal Transformations in Anton Chekhov’s Prose

“…Причиной возникновения, как и ожидаемым эффектом такого нарратива, являются эмоции (радость, грусть) 12 . Самое главное то, что такая схема доступна всем и является частью наших литературных концептов, фреймов 13 ; она также влияет на ожидания читателя, что проявляется в способности предсказать развитие сюжета. К универсальному нарративу прибегают все писатели (сценаристы), желающие привлечь массовое внимание.…”