Frame Report

In some sentences both participants are expressed by the Subject, and there is no 'with'-phrase (cf example 1). In sentences like this, the Subject is assigned the FE role Interlocutors. In such sentences, the Subject always denotes more than one person, and it is understood that the reciprocal communication takes place between these two (or more) people. The Subject may denote two or more people either through conjunction, as in example 1, or through plurality, as in example 2, or by denoting a group, as in example 3. In each of these cases the FE Interlocutors is assigned. Notice that for nouns in the Discussion frame, it is possible for the Interlocutors role to be expressed by a prepositional phrase as in example 4.

(1) The President and his advisor discussed the Venezuelan situation briefly before the summit.
(2) The lawyers conferred before the trial.
(3)The committee debated the bill for only a few minutes.
(4) There was a brief exchange between the lawyers.

In cases where the Interlocutors involved in a conversation are construed as two separate groups with different levels of volitionality or control, this FE identifies the conversational participant with greater semantic and syntactic prominence, as compared with Interlocutor_2. That is, Interlocutor_1 is generally encoded as Subject, and peripheral FEs that do not make reference to the event itself generally make reference to Interlocutor_1. Thus a Purpose (or Means, Depictive, or Manner) is construed to be that of Interlocutor_1, not necessarily that of Interlocutor_2 or the group of Interlocutors as a whole.
The President conferred with his top advisor.
I discussed evolution with Gould to prove he was wrong about it.

In cases where the Interlocutors involved in a conversation are construed as two separate groups with different levels of volitionality or control, Interlocutor_2 refers to the semantically and grammatically less prominent group. It is generally encoded within a prepositional phrase (e.g. headed by with). Note that it is possible for a single role to correspond to multiple referents. For example, if the prepositional object in the example below were plural, we would still assign it the single role Interlocutor_2.
The President debated with his top advisor.

Topic expresses the subject that the Interlocutors are trying to come to some agreement about. It may refer, for example, to an undesirable issue that the Interlocutors want to have the proper response to, or it may refer more directly to an unresolved question.

The President and his top advisors discussed the scandal.
They had a discussion about the scandal.
The participants debated whether the US should soften its response.

Amount_of_discussion applies to phrases expressing how thoroughly a Topic has been discussed.

This issue had been exhaustively discussed

The Duration of the conversation.

They had a short conference off by the stable.

The linguistic system(s) used by the Interlocutors to discuss something.

In our house everybody debated politics in three different languages at once.

This frame element marks phrases that expresss the Manner in which one or both of the Interlocutors communicate.

They debated amicably over who should pay the restaurant bill.

This Frame Elememt marks constituents expressing the means the parties to the conversation use to talk to each other.

Email allows people to communicate electronically
They briefly conferred with each other via a quick series of eyebrow twitches and a quirk of the mouth.

The device or system that facilitates a discussion.

If we held a debate on the radio, noone would be listening -- you could say whatever you wanted!

The location at which a discussion takes place.

We just conferred for a couple of hours up in her room.

The goal that Interlocutor_1 or the Interlocutors jointly have, i.e. the state of affairs that they wish to bring about by the conversation.

You engage in such idle debate just to see how long I'll let it go.

The time at which the discussion takes place.

Last year the participants discussed taking down the last trade barriers without consensus.

This FE denotes an event that occurs or a state of affairs that holds at a time that includes the time during which the discussion takes place and of which it is taken to be part.

Did you catch that "Your Local News Now"|con_eve discussion about rising crime in suburban areas?

This FE identifies a depictive phrase describing Interlocutor_1 or the pair of Interlocutors.

Jack and Jill discussed the issue unaware of its full import.

The general field or area in which the discussion takes place, or which shapes the discussion or its topic.

This prompted a rather philosophical|dom debate about the importance of having a purpose in life.

The number of times the discussion happens in a given period of time.

I came to enjoy our frequent|fre discussions.

The length of time from when the event denoted by the target began to be repeated to when it stopped.