Frames of Semantic Situations

In different languages, the means of expressing a situation are shared variously between grammar and lexicon and must be represented by semantic configurations specific to a particular language (or family of languages). Situations are semantic ‘nests ’ for several verbs which allow for the expression of a variety of aspects in the course of communication. For this reason, from a theoretical point of view, semantic situations can be seen as independent of the language in which they are expressed. Research into aspect in diverse languages showed that an aspect could not be explained without first describing the semantic situation. Thus numerous attempts have been made to classify semantic situations1, especially after the classification proposed by Z. Vendler (1957 and 1967) for explaining aspect in English. As verbs in natural languages normally express complex situations, semantic situations are made up of other situations, with the result that it is possible to speak of situational aggregates. In other words, situations are mixed up with one another. We maintain, however, that it is possible to separate out a number of situation types and their constituent parts by considering the possibility of classifying them from two points of view. We will hypothesise a distinction between frame situations and rôle situations. In this article we will consider fram