Frame Report

This frame consists of words that indicate the change of an Item's position on a scale (the Attribute) from a starting point (Initial_value) to an end point (Final_value). The direction (Path) of the movement can be indicated as well as the magnitude of the change (Difference). The rate of change of the value (Speed) is optionally indicated. Another scale (Correlated_variable), which the values are correlated with, is indicated if it is not the default correlate (namely, absolute time).


The distinction between Attributes and Items is not always an easy one. The clear cases involve the expression of the
Attribute in an in-PP.

Hawke's Bay winery doubled in size last year.

The amount you can deduct, then, depends on whether or not the stock has increased in value during the period you have owned it.

Other clear cases of Attributes involve NP's like size, quality, number, value that denote abstract attributes rather than events or classes of things.



The analysis is more complicated when an event-denoting noun phrase occurs as the subject and the sentence has no in-PP. In the simplest cases, where the Attribute is the number of occurrences of the event, the Attribute is usually left implicit, as in exx. 1 and 2, the Attribute below.

(1)Accidents increased 20% to 345|val2.
(1--second FE layer)Accidents increased 20% to 345.
(2) Attacks on civilians decreased over the last 4 months
DNI.

In cases like (1), we will tag the Attribute on the second layer below the Final_value label, as that FE makes
it clear that the Attribute is simply cardinality. In cases like (2), we tag it as DNI because in context the hearer has
to understand a particular Attribute rather than just some or any appropriate Attribute of the
Item. Note that the above pattern can be compared to cases involving tangible Items, where the Attribute may similarly be missing when the incidence or frequency of the Item is specified.

(3) Woodland birds increasedto their highest level since 1990|val2 DNI.

A more complicated case involving event-denoting subjects is when the Attribute measured is not the incidence of the type of event specified but rather an Attribute of an event-participant. In (4), it is not the number of times that turbot was caught that has changed but the amount of fish caught.

(4) Turbot catches increased from around 100 tonnes in the 1960s|val1 to around 1,200 tonnes in the mid 1990s|val2.
(4-second FE layer) Turbot catches increased from around 100 tonnes in the 1960s|att to around 1,200 tonnes in the mid 1990s|att.

(Note the 2nd layer annotation of the Attribute below the Initial_value and Final_value FEs, since they indicate that the Attribute is implicitly weight.)

Similarly, in (5), the report is (in context) about the total monetary value of the gifts, not about the number of donations made.

(5)Overall Giving by Church Members increased from 2000 to 2001

As can be seen from the above examples, we consider the event nouns in uses such as (4) and (5) to also specify Items. Note that in cases like (4), we do not want to treat the subject NP "turbot catches" as an Attribute that includes information about the Item, since it would not make sense to restate (4) as follows:

*Turbot increased in catches.

Two more complications arise. First, certain nouns that do not, by their etymology, denote abstract attributes have a second sense in which they do denote an Attribute.

(6) The population of Smallville increased fourfold to 807.


Under one reading, (6a), the population could be understood as referring to "the people", in which case the Attribute cardinality is understood as unexpressed, as in (1), (2), and (3). The Attribute could be overtly specified:

(6a) The population of Smallville|ite increased fourfold|Diff in size|att to 807|val2.

Under another reading, (6b), population is an Attribute that habitats or locations possess. In this case, the whole NP "the population of Smallville" is treated as the Attribute and on the second layer "of Smallville" is tagged as Item.

(6b) The population of Smallville|att increased fourfold|Diff to 807|val2.
(6b-second FE layer) The population of Smallville|ite increased fourfold to 807.
Support for the possibility of this second reading comes from the fact that you can also state the facts as in (6c).

(6c) Smallville|ite increased fourfold|Diff in population|att to 807|val2.


The last complication is that Initial_value expressions can also function as the subject, which superficially look like expressions of Attribute.

(7) The 1999 price|val1 had increased to $3400|val2 by 2001.
(7--second layer) The 1999 price|att had increased to $3400 by 2001.

There is no Attribute "1999 price" here (though the concept is plausible in certain special statistical contexts where prices are indexed to prices of a particular year). (7) simply reports that the value of the price-Attribute changed from whatever it was in 1999 to the new value of $3400 by 2001. For sentence (7), Attribute would only be indicated as "price" on the 2nd layer.