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DFG Collaborative Research Centre 991: The Structure of Representations in Language, Cognition, and Science

A Projects: general aspects of a theory of frames

This area of the CRC addresses foundational issues concerning frames. The topics of the projects range from formal properties of frames and frame composition to the grounding of frames in basic sensory-motor representations, the activation of frames and particular frame attributes in language production and comprehension, the history of the notion of frames in philosophy, and the role of frames in the representation of scientific theories.

Project Title PIs
A01 Mathematical modeling of frames Prof. Dr. Wiebke Petersen
A02 Argument linking and extended locality. A frame-based implementation Prof. Dr. Laura Kallmeyer
A03 Grounded cognition: Causal indexicals and affordances in frames Prof. Dr. Gottfried Vosgerau
A04 Accessing conceptual information in language production and comprehension Prof. Dr. Dr. Peter Indefrey
A05 Presuppositions of frame theory in the history of philosophy Prof. Dr. Christoph Kann
A06 Logic and ontology of the cognitive representation of theories: Frames, sentences and models in comparison Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schurz

B Projects: Dynamic Frames in Language and Science

While the projects of area A deal with foundational issues of frame theory, the projects of area B contribute exploratory work on the nature of frames in a broad range of scientific fields such as linguistics, psychiatry, law, neurology and philosophy. One uniting aspect of this area is the relevance of causal, temporal and aspectual information in the concepts they are dealing with. Several projects are in particular concerned with event frames, event modification, and the representation of temporal dynamics and change of state.

Project Title PIs
B01 Verb frames at the syntax-semantics interface Prof. Dr. Robert D. Van Valin jr.
B02 Dimensional verbs Prof. Dr. Sebastian Löbner, Prof. Dr. Hans Geisler
B03 Multimodal cerebral representation of action concepts Dr. Katja Biermann-Ruben, Prof. Dr. Alfons Schnitzler
B04 A frame-theoretic investigation of unification and reduction in scientific theories Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schurz
B05 A frame analysis of German legal terms Prof. Dr. Dietrich Busse
B06 Frames in psychiatric classification Prof. Dr. med. Jürgen Zielasek, Prof. Dr. Gottfried Vosgerau
B08 Hierarchical frame induction via probabilistic models Prof. Dr. Laura Kallmeyer
B09 Modifiers as a probe into the frame structure of events Prof. Dr. Sebastian Löbner, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Wiebke Petersen

C Projects: Operations on Frames

The projects in this area mostly concentrate on nominal frames. The research in this part of the CRC originally started out with an investigation of type shifts based on the theory of concept types and determination developed in Löbner (2011). In the current funding period, the scope of this project group has been extended to shifts and operations on frames in general with a particular focus on the complex of countability, the semantics of nominal derivation, and nominal modification.

Project Title PIs
C01 Conceptual shifts: typological evidence Prof. Dr. Sebastian Löbner, Dr. Leon Stassen
C02 Conceptual shifts: statistical evidence Prof. Dr. Sebastian Löbner, Prof. Dr. Wiebke Petersen
C03 Conceptual shifts: psycholinguistic evidence Prof. Dr. Dr. Peter Indefrey
C04 Conceptual shifts: their role in historical semantics Prof. Dr. Hans Geisler
C05 Frames and nominal word formation Prof. Dr. Sebastian Löbner
C08 The semantics of derivational morphology: A frame-based approach Prof. Dr. Ingo Plag
C09 A frame-based analysis of countability Prof. Dr. Hana Filip
C10 A frame-based analysis of adjective-noun combinations Prof. Dr. Sebastian Löbner, Prof. Dr. Wiebke Petersen

D Projects: Extending the boundaries of frames

The projects of this area deal with phenomena that require an extension of the frame models used in the first funding period. Area D covers philosophical research on prototype-based reasoning and probabilistic frames, and on the interplay of public versus private meaning representations. Furthermore, the linguistic projects of this area focus on the role of information structure in concept composition and the frame representation of morpho-phonological paradigms. Moreover, area D also extends the application of the frame approach to the domain of social cognition and social interaction.

Project Title PIs
D01 Frame representation of prototype concepts and prototype-based reasoning Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schurz
D02 Individual psychology and public meaning: bridging the gap with frames Prof. Dr. Gottfried Vosgerau
D03 Conceptual representation in social cognition: frame-theoretical representation of “social partner” Prof. Dr. Tobias Kalenscher
D04 The role of information structure in sentence formation and construal: a frame-based approach Prof. Dr. Robert D. Van Valin jr., Dr. Anja Latrouite
D05 Frames in morphophonology: Modeling paradigms as frames Prof. Dr. Ruben van de Vijver

Z Projects: Central Projects

The Z Projects are the central service projects of the CRC 991. They include the administrative office (project Z) and the integrated research training group (MGK).

Project Title Staff
Z Administrative Office Dr. Thomas Gamerschlag, Lena Hierl
SToRE Integrated Research Training group Prof. Dr. Alexander Ziem, Dr. Eva Gentes