Frame Report

An Agent causes a Theme to move from a Source, along a Path, to a Goal. Different members of the frame emphasize the trajectory to different degrees, and a given instance of the frame will usually leave some of the Source, Path and/or Goal implicit. The completion of motion is not required (unlike the Placing frame, see below), although individual sentences annotated with this frame may emphasize the Goal.

This frame is very broad and contains several different kinds of words that refer to causing motion. Some words in this frame do not emphasize the Manner/Means of causing the motion (transfer.v, move.v). For many of the others (cast.v, throw.v, chuck.v, etc.), the Agent has control of the Theme only at the Source of motion, and does not experience overall motion. For others (e.g. drag.v, push.v, shove.v, etc.) the Agent has control of the Theme throughout the motion; for these words, the Theme is resistant to motion due to some friction with the surface along which they move.

She threw her shoes into the dryer .
The mechanic dragged the jack out from under the car .
We will move the sofa out of the room through the french doors, down the stairs, and onto the sidewalk .



This frame is used in a very large number of productive metaphors, not all of which can be outlined here. The most salient types include causing an entity, construed as a Theme, to change state from an initial state (Source) via an intermediate state (Path) to a final state (Goal):
Hillary was catapulted to stardom and his life has never been the same since . CNI
She felt as though flung from health to illness and back by the day , by the hour .
Once our parents are dead , we are catapulted into becoming the older generation ourselves . CNI
Croquet was pushed out by tennis .


A particularly divergent subtype casts changing someone's intentions as changing their location:
Democratsforced the Senate into a rare closed door session .
He nudged Mrs Thatcher towards acceptance of a unified Germany .


Another subtype is specifically about causing a change in quantity (the Theme) through some sequence of values (Source, Path, and Goal):
Bonus payments would be handed out for pushing up voting levels CNI .


Another type, with many subtypes, involves causing an action or state (construed as a Theme) to have an effect on another person or location or conceptual domain. In such cases, theGoal is used for the final affected domain, and Source for initial affected domain, Path for an intermediate affected domain, and Distance for degree of difference between original application of the action and final:
Jake had been hurling these same insults at her now for years
One can not press this argument too far .
She shoved the thought to the very back of her mind .
She flung him a savage little smile .
All of the foregoing metaphorical uses are annotated in this frame and marked "Metaphor", since they seem to be semantically motivated and not lexically idiosyncratic.



This frame contrasts with the following frames which talk about an Agent changing a Theme's position with respect to a landmark (either Source or Goal):


In Placing, the figure (Theme) is profiled as the object, and ends up on the ground (Goal). The focus is on the final stage of motion, in which the Theme ends up at the Goal, and usually stably remains there.
Joyce placed the flowers onto the bed.


In Filling, the ground (Goal) is profiled as the object, and the figure (Theme) ends up on the ground (Goal).
John filled the box with old toys.


In Removing, the figure (Theme) is profiled, and is removed from the ground (Source).
Jennifer removed the flowers from the bed.


In Emptying, the ground (Source) is profiled and the figure (Theme) is removed from it.
Jason emptied the box of the old toys .


Words of this frame also differ from the words of the Bringing frame in that they are more general: either the Agent has a momentary interaction with the Theme that causes its motion, unlike the continuous causation of Bringing, or the Agent continuously acts on the Theme, but there is no supporting object that helps with the motion like the Carrier of the Bringing frame.