Microframes

What is a microframe?

A microframe reifies a binary relation as a frame: the relation itself becomes a first-class frame that can be named, evoked by words, and connected to other frames. This lets us model how entities interact with the same machinery FrameNet already uses for situations.

Structure

Microframes share the structural foundation of traditional frames, with one constraint: they contain exactly two Frame Elements (FEs) — the Domain and the Range of the relation. Because a microframe is a binary relation, its two FEs are simply that relation's two arguments. Each FE is named to reflect the specific relation it represents, following the usual frame-naming principles.

Features

Lexical Units

Like traditional frames, microframes can be evoked by Lexical Units (LUs), letting specific words trigger the relational concepts they encode and bridging lexical semantics with structural relations.

Specificity

Microframes express much more specific relations than standard FrameNet frames. Where traditional frames model broad conceptual situations, microframes capture precise relational nuances between entities.

Multi-Frame Associations

A single microframe can be associated with multiple frames, functioning as a reusable semantic component across conceptual domains.

Use Cases

Binding to a Frame

A microframe is attached to a "normal" frame by a dedicated TQR relation (rel_tqr). The binding has two tiers:

• Frame level: the microframe is bound to a single base frame — the frame whose situation the relation specializes or reifies (e.g. contains → Conter, has_as_colour → Cor, has_kinship → Parentesco, agentively_causes → Ação_transitiva).
• Frame-Element level: the microframe's two FEs — its Domain and Range — are aligned to Frame Elements of that base frame, so the relation's two arguments are anchored in the frame's participant structure.

A purpose-built relation is used because neither standard relation fits: Subframe decomposes a complex/scenario frame into temporally ordered sub-events, and a microframe is a binary relation rather than a sub-event; Perspective re-construes one scene from two full frames with parallel FE inventories, whereas a two-FE microframe expresses grounding/specialization, not reperspectivization. The rel_tqr binding instead records exactly the Domain/Range-to-FE alignment that those relations cannot carry. This is the TQR FE structure detailed in the TQR document.

Microframes are also organized among themselves by subsumption (rel_inheritance), and each is grounded in DUL through the same subsumption edge — see TQR Reference and DUL Grounding.

Qualia Relations

Microframes express qualia relations between LUs, evolving the original idea of TQR (Ternary Qualia Relation).

Ontological Relations

The same microframe structure expresses ontological relations: subsumption between classes, subsumption between properties (microframes), object properties between classes, and OWL restrictions (where the Domain is a Frame Element of the class). One structure serves all of these — the Domain/Range FEs simply point to classes, properties, or FEs as the case requires.

Generalization Across Events

Microframes also generalize circumstantial and participant dimensions common across many events — Time, Manner, Means, and similar. In TQR these are the non-qualia relations (handled by the Spatial, Role, and General categories), captured with the same microframe abstraction as the qualia relations above.