Preliminary Recommendations

Partial SGML DTD

<!ELEMENT Frame_set - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Frame_set 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      name            CDATA        #IMPLIED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      related_l       IDREFS       #IMPLIED
      frame_l         IDREFS       #REQUIRED>

<!-- The Frame_set ELEMENT is the syntactic characterisation associated with the lexical unit to describe one of its syntactic behaviours. A lexical morphological unit will be associated with as many Frame_set ELEMENTs as it has different syntactic behaviours. A Frame_set has at least one FRAME, and possibly several associated FRAMEs, that can be related or not through the Related ELEMENTs that are pointed to by their ID (related_l attribute) -->

<!ELEMENT Related - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Related 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      name            CDATA        #REQUIRED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      first_slot_pt   IDREF        #REQUIRED
      second_slot_pt  IDREF        #REQUIRED>

<!-- The Related ELEMENT associates one slot or slot realisation of one frame with another slot or slot realisation of another frame. It describes explicitly how two frames in a Frame set are related. first_slot_pt and second_slot_pt refer to Slot_Pointer ELEMENTs that are linked -->

<!ELEMENT Slot_pointer - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Slot_pointer 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      frame_pt        IDREF        #REQUIRED
      slot_index      NUMBER       #REQUIRED
      slot_real_pt    IDREF        #IMPLIED>

<!-- The Slot_pointer ELEMENT has different attributes:

• frame_pt points to a Frame via its ID,
• slot_index points to a slot of the pointed Frame via the index it has in the list of Ordered_Slot
• slot_real_pt refers to a Slot_Realisation via its ID, the realisation of the pointed-to Slot

Slot_Pointer gives access to a Slot of a Frame (when slot_real_pt is not present, a Slot_Realisation in the other case) -->

<!ELEMENT Frame - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Frame 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      name            CDATA        #IMPLIED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      rel_order_cst_l IDREFS       #IMPLIED
      control         IDREF        #IMPLIED
      self            IDREF        #IMPLIED
      ordered_slot_l  IDREFS       #IMPLIED>

<!-- The Frame ELEMENT is the main descriptive ELEMENT of this model. It gives access to different types of information and to their syntactic and surface relations.

• rel_order_cst_l refers to a list of Relative_order_constraint that can be empty
• control refers to the Control information via its ID. It can be present or not.
• self refers to Self characteristics when in the Frame. It can be absent if no special characteristics are to be specified.
• ordered_slot_l: the list of subcategorised elements, called Slot, referred to by their ID. This list is not empty most of the time, however in limited cases it can be empty if the bare lexical unit is its own context (verbs with no subcategorised complements nor subject in certain languages, for instance weather verbs in Spanish).

-->

<!ELEMENT Relative_order_constraint - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Relative_order_constraint 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      before_slot     NUMBER       #REQUIRED
      after_slot      NUMBER       #REQUIRED
      before_reali    IDREF        #IMPLIED
      after_reali     IDREF        #IMPLIED>

<!-- Relative_order_constraint expresses one order constraint over all the realisations of one slot or just one, and all the realisations of one slot or just one or to self (lexical unit associated with the syntactic description)

• before_slot points via its_index to a slot (or to self) constrained to be the first in the surface instantiation of the frame
• after_slot points via its_index to a slot (or to self) after the before Slot on the surface
• before_reali selects just one realisation by reference to its ID to be affected by the constraint on the before slot
• after_reali selects just one realisation by reference to its ID to be affected by the constraint on the after slot

The slots are numbered counting from 1 (index count). Conventionally, 0 represents self. Thus, before_slot and after_slot can represent any slot or the lexical unit (verb) which is being described syntactically. This permits one to constrain the order between slots and the order between a slot and the self. -->

<!ELEMENT Ordered_slot - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Ordered_slot 	
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      index           NUMBER       #REQUIRED
      slot            IDREF        #REQUIRED
      optional       (YES|NO)     NO>

<!-- Ordered_slot ELEMENT associates a Slot with a Frame expressing some attributes of this association:

• index gives its conventional or canonical rank in the list of slots of the frame
• slot refers to the Slot via its id
• optional expresses the optional or obligatory character of the Slot when associated with the Frame.

-->

<!ELEMENT Slot - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Slot 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      name            CDATA        #IMPLIED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      slot_reali_l    IDREFS       #REQUIRED>

<!-- Slot ELEMENT is a generalised subcategorised element of the Frame, characterised by the fact that it has at least one realisation and sometimes several. Slot can be related to other slots of the same frame via relative order constraints and also to other slots of other frames in the same frameset through Related ELEMENT. slot_reali_l refers to the Slot_realisation of the Slot, at least one. -->

<!ELEMENT Slot_Realisation - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Slot_Realisation 	
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      name            CDATA        #IMPLIED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      controlled_by   NUMBERS      #IMPLIED
      obviates        NUMBERS      #IMPLIED
      in_order        (PRE|POST|NOT_RELEVANT)   POST
      syntax          IDREF        #REQUIRED
      semantics       IDREFS       #IMPLIED>

<!-- Slot_Realisation ELEMENT is one element of the distribution of a Slot

• controlled_by points, via indices, to the possible slots that are the controllers (usually one, but sometimes more than one possible controller, the list has to be understood as alternative elements) of a realisation when it is, for instance, an infinitival,
• obviates points, via indices, to impossibly coreferring slots (usually none or one, but sometimes more than one, to be understood as AND)
• in_order specifies the usual/most probable/canonical place of the realisation in relation to the verb that subcategorises for it
• syntax points to the syntax properties (Syntax ELEMENT) of the realisation through its ID. It is the only information necessarily present for Slot_Realisation
• semantics points to the semantic properties (Semantics ELEMENT) of the realisation through its ID. This element can be absent, and its presennce depends on the lexical entry and on the choices that have been made to define the boundary between syntactic and semantic description.

-->

<!ELEMENT Syntax - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Syntax 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      name            CDATA        #REQUIRED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      function        IDREF        #REQUIRED
      category        IDREF        #REQUIRED>

<!-- Syntax ELEMENT is the syntactic property of one realisation of slot It is the association of two information

• function is a pointer to a Function, it is obligatory
• category is a pointer to a Category, it is alsoobligatory

-->

<!ELEMENT Function - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Function 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      name            CDATA        #REQUIRED
      subject         (YES|NO]     NO
      predicative     (YES|NO]     NO>

<!-- Function ELEMENT describes the syntactic (or functional) relation that links the realisation and the lexical unit (self) in the frame. It is described via two binary attributes that are elementary properties of functions, and its name can make it more precise. The list of possible names of functions is not given in this DTD but has to be defined for any given lexicon.-->

<!ELEMENT Category - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Category 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      name            CDATA        #IMPLIED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      type            (TERM|NON_TERM) NON_TERM
      label           
(N|AJ|PR|V|AV|CJ|AD|DT|AR|IN|S|VP|NP|AP|ADVP|DETP)
                                   NP
      valued_feat_l IDREF        #REQUIRED>

<!-- Category ELEMENT describes the syntactic class of the realisation by means of the kind of constituent it is. It is an association of three types of information

• type for the type of constituent (terminal or non-terminal).
• label to precisely constrain the constituent. A finite list is proposed, but could be extended to the needs of some languages
• valued_feat_l to constrain the constituent with different morphosyntactic or syntactic or lexical features.

-->

<!ELEMENT Semantics - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Semantics 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      name            CDATA        #IMPLIED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      themat_rol      IDREF        #REQUIRED
      semant_class    IDREF        #REQUIRED>

<!-- Semantics ELEMENT describes the semantic properties of the realisation. It is an association of two types of information

• themat_rol gives the type of thematic relation that links the element to the lexical unit that subcategorises for it.
• semant_class refers to the semantic class compatibility constraining the semantic interpretation of the realisation.

-->

<!ELEMENT Thematic_rol - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Thematic_rol 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      name            CDATA        #REQUIRED
      role_feat_l     IDREFS       #IMPLIED>

<!-- Thematic_rol ELEMENT can specify the thematic role combining elementary role properties. The set of elementary properties is associated with a name that, when present, it defines. The only obligatory information is the name; the list of possible thematic roles (and possible values of name) is not constrained by this model, but has to be defined for each lexicon. -->

<!ELEMENT Semantic_class - O EMPTY>
!ATTLIST Semantic_class 
      id              ID           #REQUIRED
      comments        CDATA        #IMPLIED
      name            CDATA        #REQUIRED
      is_a_sem_cl_l   IDREFS       #IMPLIED>

<!-- Semantic_class ELEMENT can semantically constrain the semantic interpretation of a realisation that is associated with it to be compatible with it. It is defined by its name and, when present, by its hierarchical relations to other classes, expressed through the is_a_sem_cl_l which refers to no, one, or several Semantic_class under which the semantic class is located (the linking relation is a IS_A relation. The more specific class points to the more general ones it inherits from. -->

<!ELEMENT Role_feature - O EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST Role_feature 
      id              ID            #REQUIRED
      name            CDATA         #REQUIRED
      value           CDATA         #REQUIRED>

<!-- Role_feature is an elementary feature for characterising thematic roles. It has name and value, completely unconstrained by this proposal.-->