Assignment 7: Frame Semantics, Metaphor, Aspect
Assigned Tuesday, April 4th
Due Monday, April 10th, by 11:59pm - submit electronically.


Part I: Frame semantics
  1. Briefly describe the frame semantics of the concept Journey: Additional tip: see here for an example frame.
     
  2. Briefly define the following words or phrases with respect to your Journey frame: 
    set out, back on track, roadblock, ahead of schedule, crossroads, reorient, detour

Part II: Event Structure Metaphor
Here is the locative version of the basic event structure metaphor (ESM):
Target Domain (event structure) Source Domain (physical space)
States Locations (interiors of bounded regions in space)
Changes Movements (into or out of bounded regions)
Causes Forces
Causation Forced Movement (from one location to another)
Actions Self-propelled Movements
Purposes Destinations
Means Paths
Difficulties Impediments to Motion
Freedom of Action Lack of Impediments to Motion
External Events Large, Moving Objects (that exert force)
Long-term Purposeful Activities Journeys
  1. Show how the ESM maps the Journey frame onto the domain of events: take the Journey frame you described for Part I and show the target domain frame that results from applying the Event Structure Metaphor. (That is, the frame of Events as structured by the ESM.)
     
  2. Which of the words from Part I have meanings that derive from the ESM? Show for three of those terms how source domain entailments are mapped onto the target domain of events. Also note for each term whether any entailments are not mapped.
     
  3. The following sentences use two variations on the ESM (that is, other metaphors that overlap with the ESM in some submappings):
    1. The economy is crawling along.
    2. Rice was pushed hard to testify before Congress.
    3. They have kick-started the project.
    4. He's on the verge of victory.
    5. The new housing project has hit a brick wall.
    6. She came close to joining the protest movement.
    7. They're reorienting the project in a different direction now.
    8. The impending budget crisis has sapped the government's drive.
    9. She jumped into the project enthusiastically.
    10. He's taking concrete steps towards becoming a certified accountant.

    State the two metaphors and briefly describe the relevant mappings. Make sure to state how they are variants of the ESM, and tell which sentences fit with each. 


Part III: Aspect
An action or event has (at least) the following aspectual structure:
  1. Consider the following sentences:
    1. Based on these sentences, give aspectual analyses of the following verbs: walk, rub, climb, kick. Specifically, give the verb's inherent aspect, and note extra aspectual inferences that can arise based on aspectual markers (e.g., progressive tense, perfect-progressive, etc.).
    2. Now consider the sentences:
      Mary pulled the chair in. / Mary is pulling the chair in.
      In pull in, specify which part of the aspectual structure is assigned to pull and which to in.
  2. Consider your definitions of: set out and roadblock from Part I. How can these definitions be recast in terms of the aspectual structure of the Journey domain?
  3. Give an example each of:
    1. a verb with inherent perfective aspect in a sentence in which the aspect has been changed to imperfective
    2. a verb with an inherent inceptive (starting) aspect in a sentence in which the aspect has been changed to perfective
    3. a sentence in which the adverbial phrases for a minute changes aspectual interpretation
    4. a sentence in which the adverbial phrases in a minute changes aspectual interpretation
  4. Give an example of an aspectually ambiguous sentence: describe the ambiguity, give contexts that resolve the ambiguity (one for each interpretation), and explain why the contexts work as they do

Readings:
O5, O6, R14