Université de Montréal - Thèse sous forme numérique

118Fillmore considers this term relevant for his theory and he elaborates his owndefinition of ―frame‖. For the author, a frame is ―any system of concepts related in sucha way that to understand any one of them you have to understand the whole structure inwhich it fits‖ (Fillmore 1982: 111). But in order to clearly understand what Fillmoremeans by this, consider the following sentences:[3] We never open our presents until morning.[4] My dad wasted most of the morning on a bus.[5] Please finish chapter 3 on Frame Semantics by Tuesday.Hearing sentence [3] we immediately understand that the speaker is talkingabout a Christmas practice, although the word Christmas is never mentioned, nor any ofthe other words necessarily relate to Christmas. Obviously, it is the association of theindividual meanings of each word that allows the speaker to formulate such aninterpretation. We can, therefore, say that this statement evokes the Christmas frame.On its part, sentence [4] entails the simple fact that the speaker‘s male parentspent some part of a day in a vehicle. However, hearing this sentence, we understandthat (Fillmore 1985: 230-231):1. The speaker is not a grown-up;2. The speaker is not talking to a member of his own household;3. The time in question was somehow between 8 AM and 12 PM;4. The vehicle in question was moving along its regular route (in service);5. The presence of the speaker‟s father was irrelevant to the route the bus wastaking;6. The parent‟s time could have been better employed.