Relational Namespace
Core Definition
Relational frames foreground a connection or association between two or more entities. The primary semantic content is the relation itself — not a property of a single entity, and not an event occurring to one. Relational frames are static: the relation simply holds over time with no internal change, no agent, and no inherent endpoint.
Formal template:
RELATION(Relatum₁, Relatum₂)
Key participants:
- Relatum₁ — one participant in the relation (typically subject position)
- Relatum₂ — the other participant (typically object or complement)
The relation may be symmetric (João é amigo de Pedro ↔ Pedro é amigo de João) or asymmetric (João é pai de Maria ≠ Maria é pai de João). Many asymmetric relations have a converse: pai-de / filha-de, possuir / pertencer a.
Scope
Includes:
- Possession: João tem um carro (João has a car), A casa pertence a Maria (The house belongs to Maria)
- Kinship: João é pai de Maria (João is Maria's father), Pedro é irmão de Ana
- Social / professional: Maria é amiga de Pedro (friendship), João é professor de Ana (teaching role)
- Part-whole (meronymy): A roda é parte do carro (The wheel is part of the car)
- Quantitative / measure: João tem 30 anos (João is 30), A mesa mede 2 metros
- Abstract: O problema tem solução (The problem has a solution), O resultado depende dos dados
- Spatial / locative: O livro está sobre a mesa (The book is on the table), A loja fica entre o banco e a praça — a Figure located relative to a Ground (frames Relação_locativa, Relação_locativa_direcional, Relação_de_perfilamento_interior)
- Temporal: A reunião é antes do almoço (The meeting is before lunch), A viagem levou três horas (The trip took three hours) — a Trajector time/event ordered, aligned, or measured against a Reference time/event (frames Tempo_relativo, Colocação_temporal, Vetor_tempo, Relação_de_duração, Sub-região_temporal)
Excludes — see other namespaces:
- Single-entity property holding → Stative (João é alto)
- Entity undergoes change of state → Change (A porta abriu)
- Agent causes change in Patient → Agentive (João quebrou o vaso)
- Mental or perceptual event with Experiencer → Experiential (João ama Maria)
- Agent/Cause changes the time of an event → Agentive (adiar a reunião, frame Mudar_tempo_do_evento): altering a temporal value is dynamic causation with an Agent, not a static relation
- A noun that merely names a period or point in time, rather than relating two relata → Entity / Attribute (a manhã, o século, a estação seca; frames Período_de_tempo, Localização_no_tempo, Divisão_temporal_do_esporte/da_educação, Tempo_período_de_ação): these are monadic temporal entities and fail the ≥2-participant test
Critical boundary — static vs. dynamic: Relational frames are strictly non-dynamic. When ter or ser encodes an ongoing event rather than a stable connection, the frame shifts away from Relational:
- João tem um carro → Relational (stable possession)
- João está comprando um carro → Eventive/Agentive (dynamic acquisition)
Subtypes
By relation type:
| Subtype | Definition | Typical verbs/copulas | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Possession | Possessor has control over or association with Possessed | ter, possuir, ser de, pertencer a | João tem um carro |
| Kinship | Biological, marital, or extended family tie | ser + kin term | João é pai de Maria |
| Social / Professional | Friendship, hierarchy, institutional role | ser + role noun | Maria é amiga de Pedro |
| Part-Whole | Part is component, member, or portion of Whole | ser parte de, ter, pertencer a | A roda é parte do carro |
| Quantitative / Measure | Entity has a measured value on a dimension | ter (age, size), medir, custar, pesar | João tem 30 anos |
| Spatial / Locative | Figure is situated relative to a Ground region | ficar, estar, situar-se + locative PP | O livro está sobre a mesa |
| Temporal | A Trajector time/event is ordered, aligned, or measured against a Reference time/event | ser antes/depois de, coincidir com, durar, levar | A reunião é antes do almoço |
| Abstract | Logical, epistemic, or conceptual connection | ter, implicar, depender de, exigir | O problema tem solução |
Possession: alienable vs. inalienable:
| Type | Features | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Alienable | Can be transferred or lost; material objects | João tem um carro, Maria possui uma casa |
| Inalienable | Cannot be transferred; body parts, kinship, integral components | João tem dois irmãos, A casa tem três quartos |
Symmetry:
| Type | Condition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Symmetric | R(x,y) implies R(y,x) | amizade, casamento, adjacência |
| Asymmetric | R(x,y) does not imply R(y,x) | pai-de, parte-de, possuir |
| Converse pair | Asymmetric R₁(x,y) ↔ R₂(y,x) | pai-de / filha-de, comprar-de / vender-para |
Spatial and temporal relations
Two families of relational frames deserve dedicated treatment: they dominate FrameNet's relational inventory and share a single conceptual architecture — one relatum is foregrounded and located, the other is a backgrounded reference. Both are asymmetric specializations of the generic RELATION(Relatum₁, Relatum₂) template.
Spatial (locative) relations — Figure / Ground
A spatial relation locates one entity, the Figure (Figura), with respect to a reference entity, the Ground (Fundo). The Figure is the movable, to-be-located relatum; the Ground is the stable anchor. The asymmetry is inherent: we say o livro está sobre a mesa, not naturally a mesa está sob o livro, because the smaller/mobile Figure is located against the larger/fixed Ground.
| Frame | Sense | Core FEs |
|---|---|---|
| Relação_locativa | Figure at a Distance/Direction from a position on the Ground | Figura, Fundo, Região_perfilada, (Figuras) |
| Relação_locativa_direcional | Figure lies along a direction projected from the Ground | Figura, Fundo |
| Relação_de_perfilamento_interior | Figure is in the interior region of the Ground (containment: dentro, no meio, entre) | Figura, Fundo, Região_perfilada |
Locative frames often profile a Região_perfilada (Profiled_region) — the specific portion of the Ground (interior, top, side) where the Figure sits — and admit a collective Figuras when several entities are jointly located (os livros estão espalhados), exactly paralleling the Entity_1 / Entity_2 / Entities alternation of the anchor (§ Characteristic signature).
Temporal relations — Trajector / Landmark, and TIME-AS-SPACE
Temporal relations situate a Trajector time/event/period against a Reference (landmark) time/event. FrameNet builds these overwhelmingly on spatial schemas — a clear instance of the TIME-AS-SPACE conceptual metaphor:
- Vetor_tempo explicitly "baseia-se no frame Direção, especificando o Domínio como Tempo": an Evento is placed at a Distância and Direção from an Evento_de_referência — time as a directed line (duas semanas antes da estreia).
- Colocação_temporal mirrors Figure/Ground directly, with Entidade/Evento/Período_trajetor vs. Entidade/Evento/Período_de_referência — a Trajector aligned with a better-known Reference period (a festa foi na terça-feira).
- Tempo_relativo orders an Ocasião_focal relative to an Ocasião_de_referência (o dia seguinte, a véspera).
A second temporal family measures rather than orders — relating an eventuality to its temporal extent or parts:
| Frame | Relation | Core FEs |
|---|---|---|
| Relação_de_duração | Period/Eventuality ↔ its Duration | Período / Eventualidade / Entidade, Duração |
| Levar_tempo | Activity ↔ time it takes | Atividade, Duração_de_tempo |
| Sub-região_temporal | Subpart ↔ whole Time_period (temporal part-whole) | Subparte, Período_de_tempo |
| Padrão_temporal | recurring Subevent ↔ enclosing Process | Subevento, Processo, Padrão_de_recorrência |
Boundary reminders for the temporal family:
- Frames whose target merely names a stretch of time (Período_de_tempo, Localização_no_tempo, Divisão_temporal_do_esporte / da_educação, Tempo_período_de_ação) are temporal entities/attributes, not dyadic relations — they carry a single temporal referent and fail Diagnostic Test 1 (≥ 2 participants).
- Mudar_tempo_do_evento introduces an Agente/Causa that changes an event's time; causing a change is Agentive, not Relational (fails Test 4 — Stativity).
General relational anchors in this family
The plain frame Relação (Entidade_1, Entidade_2) is the maximally schematic anchor described in the next section. Several other domain-general relations sit alongside the spatial/temporal families and remain fully within the namespace: Relações_pessoais (social), Relações_entre_palavras (two linguistic Signs), Relação_matemática (Expression_1 ↔ Expression_2: equality/inequality), and Relação_condição_sintoma (Patient ↔ Medical_condition ↔ Symptoms).
Characteristic signature
A relation holds between Entity_1 and Entity_2.
| FE | Status | Qualia role | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entity_1 | Core | CONSTITUTIVE | one relatum (Requires Entity_2; Excludes Entities) |
| Entity_2 | Core | CONSTITUTIVE | the other relatum (Requires Entity_1; Excludes Entities) |
| Entities | Core-unexpressed | CONSTITUTIVE | the collective expression of the two relata |
| Relation_type | Core-unexpressed | FORMAL | the Relation itself — the characterization that determines which model is active for reasoning |
This anchor is the Layer-2 home of the .relation ontological type (event doc
§4.2). Relation_type is the FORMAL "joining" element (the master-table "FE
core joining the concepts"); the Excludes/Requires constraints between
Entity_1, Entity_2, and the collective Entities encode the dyadic ↔
collective alternation natively. Already inherited by Cognitive_connection,
Media, Inherent_purpose. The spatial (Figura / Fundo) and temporal
(*_trajetor / *_de_referência) families specialize Entity_1 / Entity_2
as an inherently asymmetric located-relatum / reference pair — see
§ Spatial and temporal relations.
Diagnostic Tests
Test 1 — Minimal arity (≥ 2 participants)
Does the predicate require at least two participants to be grammatical?
✓ João tem um carro (two participants required) → RELATIONAL
✗ *João tem (incomplete without Relatum₂) → RELATIONAL (confirmed)
✓ João corre (one participant sufficient) → NOT RELATIONAL (Agentive)
Test 2 — Isolation test
Can the predicate be satisfied by a single entity alone, with no reference to another entity?
✗ João tem ??? (possession needs a possessed entity — cannot hold in isolation) → RELATIONAL
✗ Maria é amiga de ??? (friendship needs a friend — cannot hold in isolation) → RELATIONAL
✓ João é alto (property of João alone — holds in isolation) → NOT RELATIONAL (Stative)
Test 3 — Converse test
Does the relation have a converse predicate expressing the same situation from the other participant's perspective?
✓ João é pai de Maria ↔ Maria é filha de João → RELATIONAL (converse pair)
✓ João possui a casa ↔ A casa pertence a João → RELATIONAL (converse pair)
✓ João é amigo de Pedro ↔ Pedro é amigo de João → RELATIONAL (self-converse / symmetric)
✓ O quadro está sobre o sofá ↔ O sofá está sob o quadro → RELATIONAL (spatial Figure/Ground converse)
✓ A prova é antes das férias ↔ As férias são depois da prova → RELATIONAL (temporal Trajector/Reference converse)
✗ João corre → no converse → NOT RELATIONAL
Test 4 — Stativity
Does the relation hold without any internal change, result state, or dynamic process?
✓ João tem um carro (holds over time, no change) → RELATIONAL
✓ Maria é filha de João (permanent kinship, no change) → RELATIONAL
✗ João comprou um carro (dynamic acquisition event) → NOT RELATIONAL (Agentive/Eventive)
Test 5 — Progressive incompatibility
True relational states resist the progressive (estar + gerund).
✗ *João está tendo um carro → RELATIONAL (stative possession)
✗ *Maria está sendo filha de João → RELATIONAL (stative kinship)
✓ João está comprando um carro → NOT RELATIONAL (dynamic process)