Université de Montréal - Thèse sous forme numérique

195Although the occurrences of the first actant of violate 2 are typically the syntacticsubject of the verb, they can be divided into two different groups due to their distinctsemantic nature and be given two different labels: ACT and PROTAGONIST. The label ACTrefers to an action or behaviour, whereas the label PROTAGONIST refers to a volitional or, inFrameNet‘s terminology, ―sentient‖ agent. But the actants that receive these labels are notsimultaneously used. It is either an ACT or a PROTAGONIST that violate the law. Given thatsomeone (PROTAGONIST) is necessarily the doer of an action or behaviour (ACT), these tworoles correspond to a metonymic alternation in which one part of the PROTAGONIST, itsbehaviour, is taken for the whole. No such distinction can be made concerning the linguisticoccurrences of the second actant of the term violate 2 , as they all refer to something that isestablished in the Law. For all these reasons, the actantial structure of the term violate 2 canbe represented as below.violate 2 , vtactantial structure: ACT or PROTAGONIST ~ LAWLabelling of actantsAs actants are assumed to correspond to core FEs, the labels attributed to them attempt todepict the participants in the scenarios evoked by terms. To assist us in the task of labellingthe actants, a list of the frames described in FrameNet that are related to the subject field oflaw was compiled (Appendix 7) and some of the labels proposed there were adopted (e.g.ACT, PROTAGONIST, LAW). When no candidate label was found, labels were created basedon the typical occurrences of the actants. In any case, the labels should help users quicklygrasp the participants in the meaning of terms. Consider the following examples of labels:a. JUDGE: somebody who makes a decision after the case is tried. It can be theofficial who directs and presides over the trial (judge), the group of officialswho preside over the trial (court), or the group of individuals who observe the