FrameNet at 25

Abstract

The launch of the FrameNet project in 1997 was both a crystallisation point of decades worth of theoretical investigations into lexical meaning by Charles J. Fillmore and colleagues, as well as the seed of an ongoing line of corpus-based and computational research that seeks to implement Fillmore’s theory of Frame Semantics in a way that both provides an interesting model relevant for further theorising and also is applicable practically for semantic analysis, lexicology, and lexicography. At the occasion of FrameNet’s 25th birthday, we want to introduce the project to a new generation of researchers but also take stock of, and report on, what has been achieved. We revisit the origins of the FrameNet project, assess its development and various changes in the years since it was first reported on in a special issue in the pages of this journal twenty years ago.