In this paper I'll introduce the goals and methologies of the "FrameNet" research project, using the case of the 'Replacement' frame for illustration. The schematic elements of the Replacement frame involve (i) a position and an occupant of that position, (ii) the vacation of the position by the occupant, and (iii) the later re-occupation of the position. The schema is used to identify various roles (the position, the occupant before the change, the occupant after the change). The description of the lexical items which appeal to this schema will include links to grammatical functions, in the case of valence-bearing words. Using undecorated letters for things and letters in single quotes for linguistic reflexes of them, we can refer to the original occupant in such a schema as A and the final occupant as B. There is a simple transitive use of the verb REPLACE in which the objects A and B are identical (Please replace the book [on the shelf] when you've finished reading it); a non-causative use of REPLACE in which 'B' is the subject and 'A' is the object (I'm replacing you today = I'm taking your place today); a causative use of REPLACE has 'A' as the object and 'B' as a "with"-oblique (I'm replacing coffee with Postum in my diet). A non-causative use of SUBSTITUTE has B as the subject and A as a "for"-oblique (Postum substitutes for coffee in my new diet). A causative use of SUBSTITUTE has B as the object and A as a"for"-oblique (We're substituting Postum for coffee). The nouns REPLACEMENT and SUBSTITUTE can stand for B. And so on.
There are numerous vocabulary items which appeal to the same basic frame but which 'profile' (Langacker's term) only portions of it. For example, ABDICATE is an action A takes knowing that there is a B waiting to assume the position; SUCCESSOR is a relational term (A's successor) identifying a B in the late stage of the schema; UNDERSTUDY is a relational term (A's understudy) identifying a B in the early stage of a projected instance of the schema. (Each of these words participates in other, less schematic, frames as well, these associated with the nature of the position.
The FrameNet project, which uses the resources of large text corpora for attestations of the grammatical behavior of the words examined, aims at the creation of a large thesaurus whose entries are identified with semantic frames and whose links to other entries are by way of such frames, as well as through other frames that are inheritance-linked to these. (Thus, the whole apparatus of Exchange vocabulary has associations with the Replacement frame, differing in having two positions rather than just one.) The project can be thought of as providing a semantic enrichment of, and a syntagmatic augment to, WordNet.