ISO 24617-4:2014

Language resource management — Semantic annotation framework (SemAF) — Part 4: Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)

The aim of ISO 24617-4:2014 is to propose a consensual annotation scheme for semantic roles; that is to say, a scheme that indicates the role that a participant plays in an event or state, as described mostly by a verb, and typically providing answers to questions such as "?who' did ?what' to ?whom'", and ?when', ?where', ?why', and ?how'. This includes not only the semantic relations between a verb and its arguments but also those relations that are relevant for other predicative elements such as nominalizations, nouns, adjectives, and predicate modifiers; the predicating role of adverbs and the use of coercion fall outside the scope of ISO 24617-4:2014.

Gestion de ressources linguistiques — Cadre d'annotation sémantique (SemAF) — Partie 4: Rôles sémantiques (SemAF-SR)

Upravljanje z jezikovnimi viri - Ogrodje za semantično označevanje (SemAF) - 4. del: Semantične vloge (SemAF-SR)

Cilj tega dela standarda ISO 4617 je predlagati sporazumno shemo označevanja za semantične vloge; tj. shemo, ki označuje vlogo udeleženca v dogodku ali stanju, kot jo večinoma opisuje glagol, in običajno zagotovi odgovore na vprašanja, kot so »’kdo’ je storil ‘kaj’ ‘komu’« ter ‘kdaj’, ‘kje’, ‘zakaj’ in ‘kako’. To zajema ne samo semantične odnose med glagolom in njegovimi argumenti, ampak tudi te odnose, ki so pomembni za druge predikativne elemente, kot so nominalizacije, samostalniki, pridevniki in predikatni modifikatorji; predikativna vloga prislovov in uporaba prisile so zunaj področja uporabe tega dela standarda ISO 24617.
OPOMBA: V jezikoslovju pride do prisile, kadar uporabnik jezika zaradi slovničnega konteksta na novo interpretira celotno ali delno semantiko in/ali oblikovne značilnosti leksema, ki se pojavi v tem kontekstu.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 23-Jul-2014
• ICS: 01.020 - Terminology (principles and coordination)
• Technical Committee: ISO/TC 37/SC 4 - Language resource management
• Drafting Committee: ISO/TC 37/SC 4/WG 2 - Semantic annotation
• Current Stage: 9020 - International Standard under periodical review
• Start Date: 15-Jan-2025
• Due Date: 15-Jan-2025
• Completion Date: 15-Jan-2025
• Ref Project: SIST ISO 24617-4:2018 - Language resource management -- Semantic annotation framework (SemAF) -- Part 4: Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)

Standards Content (Sample)

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-september-2018
8SUDYOMDQMH]MH]LNRYQLPLYLUL2JURGMH]DVHPDQWLþQRR]QDþHYDQMH6HP$)
GHO6HPDQWLþQHYORJH6HP$)65
Language resource management -- Semantic annotation framework (SemAF) -- Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
Gestion de ressources linguistiques -- Cadre d'annotation sémantique (SemAF) -- Partie
4: Rôles sémantiques (SemAF-SR)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO 24617-4:2014
ICS:
01.020 7HUPLQRORJLMDQDþHODLQ Terminology (principles and
NRRUGLQDFLMD coordination)
35.060 Jeziki, ki se uporabljajo v Languages used in
informacijski tehniki in information technology
tehnologiji
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 24617-4
First edition
2014-08-01
Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework
(SemAF) —
Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
Gestion de ressources linguistiques — Cadre d’annotation sémantique
(SemAF) —
Partie 4: Rôles sémantiques (SemAF-SR)
Reference number
©
ISO 2014
© ISO 2014
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior
written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of
the requester.
ISO copyright office
Case postale 56 • CH-1211 Geneva 20
Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11
Fax + 41 22 749 09 47
E-mail [e-mail]
Web www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Terms and definitions . 1
2.1 Formal semantic units . 1
2.2 Conceptual semantic units and relations . 2
2.3 General linguistic units . 3
3 Abbreviated terms . 4
4 Purpose and justification . 4
5 The nature of semantic roles . 4
5.1 General . 4
5.2 Typical examples of semantic roles . 6
6 Metamodel . 7
6.1 Key concepts . 7
6.2 Introduction to a metamodel for semantic role annotation .11
6.3 Criteria for distinguishing semantic roles .12
6.4 Defining eventuality frames.13
7 Interactions .14
7.1 Semantic roles and semantic types .14
7.2 Complexities .14
7.3 The role of context in semantic role assignment .14
7.4 Fuzzy boundaries between roles .15
7.5 Multiple classification .15
7.6 Inheritance relations between semantic roles .15
8 Guidelines for developing new semantic role frameworks for languages and/
or domains .16
8.1 General .16
8.2 Mapping from VerbNet to LIRICS .17
Annex A (informative) Specification of ISO semantic roles .19
Annex B (informative) Review of existing frameworks .28
Annex C (informative) Specification of the annotation language .37
Bibliography .41
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical Barriers
to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content
resources, Subcommittee SC 4, Language resource management.
ISO 24617 consists of the following parts, under the general title Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework (SemAF):
— Part 1: Time and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
— Part 2: Dialogue acts
— Part 4: Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
— Part 5: Discourse structure (SemAF-DS)
— Part 7: Spatial information (ISO-Space)
The following parts are under preparation:
— Part 8: Semantic relations in discourse (SemAF-DRel)
Principles of semantic annotation (SemAF-Basics) will form the subject of future Part 6.
iv © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Introduction
This part of ISO 24617 aims to specify criteria for defining semantic roles (SRs), and is the outcome of
an agreement that the various semantic role frameworks being used to support data annotation (e.g.
FrameNet, VerbNet, PropBank, EngVallex, and LIRICS, to name only a few examples for English) have
strong underlying compatibilities. The goal is to provide both an explanation of these compatibilities and
a loose mapping between definitions of individual semantic roles, as listed in the different frameworks,
that will benefit the community as a whole.
The current specification has been developed under the aegis of the ISO Semantic Annotation Framework
(SemAF), where it is known as SemAF-SR.
The main parts of ISO 24617-4 consist of the following:
— Scope;
— Normative references;
— Terms and definitions;
— motivation and requirements;
— basic concepts and metamodel specifications;
— examples of mapping existing frameworks to the metamodel.
This part of ISO 24617 contains three informative annexes. In Annex A, the ISO semantic roles are
specified. In Annex B, information is provided both on past and current activities in semantic role
annotation and on tools and frame files. Annex C contains the abstract and concrete syntax for the
metamodel.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 24617-4:2014(E)
Language resource management — Semantic annotation
framework (SemAF) —
Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
1 Scope
The aim of this part of ISO 24617 is to propose a consensual annotation scheme for semantic roles; that
is to say, a scheme that indicates the role that a participant plays in an event or state, as described mostly
by a verb, and typically providing answers to questions such as “‘who’ did ‘what’ to ‘whom’”, and ‘when’,
‘where’, ‘why’, and ‘how’. This includes not only the semantic relations between a verb and its arguments
but also those relations that are relevant for other predicative elements such as nominalizations, nouns,
adjectives, and predicate modifiers; the predicating role of adverbs and the use of coercion fall outside
the scope of this part of ISO 24617.
NOTE In linguistics, coercion occurs when the grammatical context causes the language-user to reinterpret
[60]
all or parts of the semantic and/or formal features of a lexeme that appear in that context.
2 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
2.1 Formal semantic units
2.1.1
argument
formal semantic unit that is an essential element of a predicate argument structure (2.1.3) and can have
variable instantiations depending on the utterance
Note 1 to entry: An argument corresponds to a participant (2.2.5) of an eventuality (2.2.2) described by the
predicate argument structure (2.1.3).
Note 2 to entry: Arguments typically satisfy certain argument positions and can be described as being syntactico-
semantic notions, whereas participants (2.2.5) are semantico-conceptual. The standard view is that subsets of the
participants associated with an eventuality (2.2.2) are selected as arguments by the verb (or nominal or adjective)
expressing the eventuality (2.2.2). Other participants (2.2.5) are either incorporated or realized as eventuality
modifiers (2.2.4).
Note 3 to entry: Natural language predicates typically have one, two, or three arguments, although they can have
more.
2.1.2
predicate
formal semantic unit that represents a semantic relation between one or more arguments (2.1.1) in a
predicate argument structure (2.1.3)
Note 1 to entry: Predicates are indicated by predicative linguistic elements such as verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
...

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-september-2018
Upravljanje z jezikovnimi viri - Ogrodje za semantično označevanje (SemAF) - 4.
del: Semantične vloge (SemAF-SR)
Language resource management -- Semantic annotation framework (SemAF) -- Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
Gestion de ressources linguistiques -- Cadre d'annotation sémantique (SemAF) -- Partie
4: Rôles sémantiques (SemAF-SR)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO 24617-4:2014
ICS:
01.020 Terminologija (načela in Terminology (principles and
koordinacija) coordination)
35.240.30 Uporabniške rešitve IT v IT applications in information,
informatiki, dokumentiranju in documentation and
založništvu publishing
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 24617-4
First edition
2014-08-01
Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework
(SemAF) —
Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
Gestion de ressources linguistiques — Cadre d’annotation sémantique
(SemAF) —
Partie 4: Rôles sémantiques (SemAF-SR)
Reference number
©
ISO 2014
© ISO 2014
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior
written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of
the requester.
ISO copyright office
Case postale 56 • CH-1211 Geneva 20
Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11
Fax + 41 22 749 09 47
E-mail [e-mail]
Web www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Terms and definitions . 1
2.1 Formal semantic units . 1
2.2 Conceptual semantic units and relations . 2
2.3 General linguistic units . 3
3 Abbreviated terms . 4
4 Purpose and justification . 4
5 The nature of semantic roles . 4
5.1 General . 4
5.2 Typical examples of semantic roles . 6
6 Metamodel . 7
6.1 Key concepts . 7
6.2 Introduction to a metamodel for semantic role annotation .11
6.3 Criteria for distinguishing semantic roles .12
6.4 Defining eventuality frames.13
7 Interactions .14
7.1 Semantic roles and semantic types .14
7.2 Complexities .14
7.3 The role of context in semantic role assignment .14
7.4 Fuzzy boundaries between roles .15
7.5 Multiple classification .15
7.6 Inheritance relations between semantic roles .15
8 Guidelines for developing new semantic role frameworks for languages and/
or domains .16
8.1 General .16
8.2 Mapping from VerbNet to LIRICS .17
Annex A (informative) Specification of ISO semantic roles .19
Annex B (informative) Review of existing frameworks .28
Annex C (informative) Specification of the annotation language .37
Bibliography .41
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical Barriers
to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content
resources, Subcommittee SC 4, Language resource management.
ISO 24617 consists of the following parts, under the general title Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework (SemAF):
— Part 1: Time and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
— Part 2: Dialogue acts
— Part 4: Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
— Part 5: Discourse structure (SemAF-DS)
— Part 7: Spatial information (ISO-Space)
The following parts are under preparation:
— Part 8: Semantic relations in discourse (SemAF-DRel)
Principles of semantic annotation (SemAF-Basics) will form the subject of future Part 6.
iv © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Introduction
This part of ISO 24617 aims to specify criteria for defining semantic roles (SRs), and is the outcome of
an agreement that the various semantic role frameworks being used to support data annotation (e.g.
FrameNet, VerbNet, PropBank, EngVallex, and LIRICS, to name only a few examples for English) have
strong underlying compatibilities. The goal is to provide both an explanation of these compatibilities and
a loose mapping between definitions of individual semantic roles, as listed in the different frameworks,
that will benefit the community as a whole.
The current specification has been developed under the aegis of the ISO Semantic Annotation Framework
(SemAF), where it is known as SemAF-SR.
The main parts of ISO 24617-4 consist of the following:
— Scope;
— Normative references;
— Terms and definitions;
— motivation and requirements;
— basic concepts and metamodel specifications;
— examples of mapping existing frameworks to the metamodel.
This part of ISO 24617 contains three informative annexes. In Annex A, the ISO semantic roles are
specified. In Annex B, information is provided both on past and current activities in semantic role
annotation and on tools and frame files. Annex C contains the abstract and concrete syntax for the
metamodel.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 24617-4:2014(E)
Language resource management — Semantic annotation
framework (SemAF) —
Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
1 Scope
The aim of this part of ISO 24617 is to propose a consensual annotation scheme for semantic roles; that
is to say, a scheme that indicates the role that a participant plays in an event or state, as described mostly
by a verb, and typically providing answers to questions such as “‘who’ did ‘what’ to ‘whom’”, and ‘when’,
‘where’, ‘why’, and ‘how’. This includes not only the semantic relations between a verb and its arguments
but also those relations that are relevant for other predicative elements such as nominalizations, nouns,
adjectives, and predicate modifiers; the predicating role of adverbs and the use of coercion fall outside
the scope of this part of ISO 24617.
NOTE In linguistics, coercion occurs when the grammatical context causes the language-user to reinterpret
[60]
all or parts of the semantic and/or formal features of a lexeme that appear in that context.
2 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
2.1 Formal semantic units
2.1.1
argument
formal semantic unit that is an essential element of a predicate argument structure (2.1.3) and can have
variable instantiations depending on the utterance
Note 1 to entry: An argument corresponds to a participant (2.2.5) of an eventuality (2.2.2) described by the
predicate argument structure (2.1.3).
Note 2 to entry: Arguments typically satisfy certain argument positions and can be described as being syntactico-
semantic notions, whereas participants (2.2.5) are semantico-conceptual. The standard view is that subsets of the
participants associated with an eventuality (2.2.2) are selected as arguments by the verb (or nominal or adjective)
expressing the eventuality (2.2.2). Other participants (2.2.5) are either incorporated or realized as eventuality
modifiers (2.2.4).
Note 3 to entry: Natural language predicates typically have one, two, or three arguments, although they can have
more.
2.1.2
predicate
formal semantic unit that represents a semantic relation between one or more arguments (2.1.1) in a
predicate argument structure (2.1.3)
Note 1 to entry: Predicates are indicated by predicative linguistic elements such as verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
...

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-september-2018
Upravljanje z jezikovnimi viri - Ogrodje za semantično označevanje (SemAF) - 4.
del: Semantične vloge (SemAF-SR)
Language resource management -- Semantic annotation framework (SemAF) -- Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
Gestion de ressources linguistiques -- Cadre d'annotation sémantique (SemAF) -- Partie
4: Rôles sémantiques (SemAF-SR)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO 24617-4:2014
ICS:
01.020 Terminologija (načela in Terminology (principles and
koordinacija) coordination)
01.140.20 Informacijske vede Information sciences
35.240.30 Uporabniške rešitve IT v IT applications in information,
informatiki, dokumentiranju in documentation and
založništvu publishing
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 24617-4
First edition
2014-08-01
Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework
(SemAF) —
Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
Gestion de ressources linguistiques — Cadre d’annotation sémantique
(SemAF) —
Partie 4: Rôles sémantiques (SemAF-SR)
Reference number
©
ISO 2014
© ISO 2014
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior
written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of
the requester.
ISO copyright office
Case postale 56 • CH-1211 Geneva 20
Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11
Fax + 41 22 749 09 47
E-mail [e-mail]
Web www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Terms and definitions . 1
2.1 Formal semantic units . 1
2.2 Conceptual semantic units and relations . 2
2.3 General linguistic units . 3
3 Abbreviated terms . 4
4 Purpose and justification . 4
5 The nature of semantic roles . 4
5.1 General . 4
5.2 Typical examples of semantic roles . 6
6 Metamodel . 7
6.1 Key concepts . 7
6.2 Introduction to a metamodel for semantic role annotation .11
6.3 Criteria for distinguishing semantic roles .12
6.4 Defining eventuality frames.13
7 Interactions .14
7.1 Semantic roles and semantic types .14
7.2 Complexities .14
7.3 The role of context in semantic role assignment .14
7.4 Fuzzy boundaries between roles .15
7.5 Multiple classification .15
7.6 Inheritance relations between semantic roles .15
8 Guidelines for developing new semantic role frameworks for languages and/
or domains .16
8.1 General .16
8.2 Mapping from VerbNet to LIRICS .17
Annex A (informative) Specification of ISO semantic roles .19
Annex B (informative) Review of existing frameworks .28
Annex C (informative) Specification of the annotation language .37
Bibliography .41
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical Barriers
to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content
resources, Subcommittee SC 4, Language resource management.
ISO 24617 consists of the following parts, under the general title Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework (SemAF):
— Part 1: Time and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
— Part 2: Dialogue acts
— Part 4: Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
— Part 5: Discourse structure (SemAF-DS)
— Part 7: Spatial information (ISO-Space)
The following parts are under preparation:
— Part 8: Semantic relations in discourse (SemAF-DRel)
Principles of semantic annotation (SemAF-Basics) will form the subject of future Part 6.
iv © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Introduction
This part of ISO 24617 aims to specify criteria for defining semantic roles (SRs), and is the outcome of
an agreement that the various semantic role frameworks being used to support data annotation (e.g.
FrameNet, VerbNet, PropBank, EngVallex, and LIRICS, to name only a few examples for English) have
strong underlying compatibilities. The goal is to provide both an explanation of these compatibilities and
a loose mapping between definitions of individual semantic roles, as listed in the different frameworks,
that will benefit the community as a whole.
The current specification has been developed under the aegis of the ISO Semantic Annotation Framework
(SemAF), where it is known as SemAF-SR.
The main parts of ISO 24617-4 consist of the following:
— Scope;
— Normative references;
— Terms and definitions;
— motivation and requirements;
— basic concepts and metamodel specifications;
— examples of mapping existing frameworks to the metamodel.
This part of ISO 24617 contains three informative annexes. In Annex A, the ISO semantic roles are
specified. In Annex B, information is provided both on past and current activities in semantic role
annotation and on tools and frame files. Annex C contains the abstract and concrete syntax for the
metamodel.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 24617-4:2014(E)
Language resource management — Semantic annotation
framework (SemAF) —
Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
1 Scope
The aim of this part of ISO 24617 is to propose a consensual annotation scheme for semantic roles; that
is to say, a scheme that indicates the role that a participant plays in an event or state, as described mostly
by a verb, and typically providing answers to questions such as “‘who’ did ‘what’ to ‘whom’”, and ‘when’,
‘where’, ‘why’, and ‘how’. This includes not only the semantic relations between a verb and its arguments
but also those relations that are relevant for other predicative elements such as nominalizations, nouns,
adjectives, and predicate modifiers; the predicating role of adverbs and the use of coercion fall outside
the scope of this part of ISO 24617.
NOTE In linguistics, coercion occurs when the grammatical context causes the language-user to reinterpret
[60]
all or parts of the semantic and/or formal features of a lexeme that appear in that context.
2 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
2.1 Formal semantic units
2.1.1
argument
formal semantic unit that is an essential element of a predicate argument structure (2.1.3) and can have
variable instantiations depending on the utterance
Note 1 to entry: An argument corresponds to a participant (2.2.5) of an eventuality (2.2.2) described by the
predicate argument structure (2.1.3).
Note 2 to entry: Arguments typically satisfy certain argument positions and can be described as being syntactico-
semantic notions, whereas participants (2.2.5) are semantico-conceptual. The standard view is that subsets of the
participants associated with an eventuality (2.2.2) are selected as arguments by the verb (or nominal or adjective)
expressing the eventuality (2.2.2). Other participants (2.2.5) are either incorporated or realized as eventuality
modifiers (2.2.4).
Note 3 to entry: Natural language predicates typically have one, two, or three arguments, although they can have
more.
2.1.2
predicate
formal semantic unit that represents a semantic relation between one or more arguments (2.1.1) in a
predicate argument structure (2.1.3)
Note 1 to entry: Predicates are indicated by predicative linguistic elements such as verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
...

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 24617-4
First edition
2014-08-01
Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework
(SemAF) —
Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
Gestion de ressources linguistiques — Cadre d’annotation sémantique
(SemAF) —
Partie 4: Rôles sémantiques (SemAF-SR)
Reference number
©
ISO 2014
© ISO 2014
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ii © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Terms and definitions . 1
2.1 Formal semantic units . 1
2.2 Conceptual semantic units and relations . 2
2.3 General linguistic units . 3
3 Abbreviated terms . 4
4 Purpose and justification . 4
5 The nature of semantic roles . 4
5.1 General . 4
5.2 Typical examples of semantic roles . 6
6 Metamodel . 7
6.1 Key concepts . 7
6.2 Introduction to a metamodel for semantic role annotation .11
6.3 Criteria for distinguishing semantic roles .12
6.4 Defining eventuality frames.13
7 Interactions .14
7.1 Semantic roles and semantic types .14
7.2 Complexities .14
7.3 The role of context in semantic role assignment .14
7.4 Fuzzy boundaries between roles .15
7.5 Multiple classification .15
7.6 Inheritance relations between semantic roles .15
8 Guidelines for developing new semantic role frameworks for languages and/
or domains .16
8.1 General .16
8.2 Mapping from VerbNet to LIRICS .17
Annex A (informative) Specification of ISO semantic roles .19
Annex B (informative) Review of existing frameworks .28
Annex C (informative) Specification of the annotation language .37
Bibliography .41
Foreword
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The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content
resources, Subcommittee SC 4, Language resource management.
ISO 24617 consists of the following parts, under the general title Language resource management —
Semantic annotation framework (SemAF):
— Part 1: Time and events (SemAF-Time, ISO-TimeML)
— Part 2: Dialogue acts
— Part 4: Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
— Part 5: Discourse structure (SemAF-DS)
— Part 7: Spatial information (ISO-Space)
The following parts are under preparation:
— Part 8: Semantic relations in discourse (SemAF-DRel)
Principles of semantic annotation (SemAF-Basics) will form the subject of future Part 6.
iv © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Introduction
This part of ISO 24617 aims to specify criteria for defining semantic roles (SRs), and is the outcome of
an agreement that the various semantic role frameworks being used to support data annotation (e.g.
FrameNet, VerbNet, PropBank, EngVallex, and LIRICS, to name only a few examples for English) have
strong underlying compatibilities. The goal is to provide both an explanation of these compatibilities and
a loose mapping between definitions of individual semantic roles, as listed in the different frameworks,
that will benefit the community as a whole.
The current specification has been developed under the aegis of the ISO Semantic Annotation Framework
(SemAF), where it is known as SemAF-SR.
The main parts of ISO 24617-4 consist of the following:
— Scope;
— Normative references;
— Terms and definitions;
— motivation and requirements;
— basic concepts and metamodel specifications;
— examples of mapping existing frameworks to the metamodel.
This part of ISO 24617 contains three informative annexes. In Annex A, the ISO semantic roles are
specified. In Annex B, information is provided both on past and current activities in semantic role
annotation and on tools and frame files. Annex C contains the abstract and concrete syntax for the
metamodel.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 24617-4:2014(E)
Language resource management — Semantic annotation
framework (SemAF) —
Part 4:
Semantic roles (SemAF-SR)
1 Scope
The aim of this part of ISO 24617 is to propose a consensual annotation scheme for semantic roles; that
is to say, a scheme that indicates the role that a participant plays in an event or state, as described mostly
by a verb, and typically providing answers to questions such as “‘who’ did ‘what’ to ‘whom’”, and ‘when’,
‘where’, ‘why’, and ‘how’. This includes not only the semantic relations between a verb and its arguments
but also those relations that are relevant for other predicative elements such as nominalizations, nouns,
adjectives, and predicate modifiers; the predicating role of adverbs and the use of coercion fall outside
the scope of this part of ISO 24617.
NOTE In linguistics, coercion occurs when the grammatical context causes the language-user to reinterpret
[60]
all or parts of the semantic and/or formal features of a lexeme that appear in that context.
2 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
2.1 Formal semantic units
2.1.1
argument
formal semantic unit that is an essential element of a predicate argument structure (2.1.3) and can have
variable instantiations depending on the utterance
Note 1 to entry: An argument corresponds to a participant (2.2.5) of an eventuality (2.2.2) described by the
predicate argument structure (2.1.3).
Note 2 to entry: Arguments typically satisfy certain argument positions and can be described as being syntactico-
semantic notions, whereas participants (2.2.5) are semantico-conceptual. The standard view is that subsets of the
participants associated with an eventuality (2.2.2) are selected as arguments by the verb (or nominal or adjective)
expressing the eventuality (2.2.2). Other participants (2.2.5) are either incorporated or realized as eventuality
modifiers (2.2.4).
Note 3 to entry: Natural language predicates typically have one, two, or three arguments, although they can have
more.
2.1.2
predicate
formal semantic unit that represents a semantic relation between one or more arguments (2.1.1) in a
predicate argument structure (2.1.3)
Note 1 to entry: Predicates are indicated by predicative linguistic elements such as verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
2.1.3
predicate argument structure
formal representation of the core semantic content of an utterance, consisting of a predicate (2.1.2)
constant, and its arguments (2.1.1)
Note 1 to entry: In classical logic-based semantics, this corresponds to predicate argument structures in first-
order predicate logic.
Note 2 to entry: One of the arguments (2.1.1) can be a variable uniquely identifying the instance of the predicate
argument structure to allow references to it in other predicate argument structures.
Note 3 to entry: The representation of event semantics is subject to many variations; some of them, such as
in Reference [41], can have separate predicates (2.1.2) for each semantic role (2.2.6) relation. In this case, the
predicate argument structure of an utterance is the sum of the individual predicate semantic role (2.2.6) assertions
representing the semantic content of the utterance.
2.2 Conceptual semantic units and relations
2.2.1
entity
conceptual semantic unit that typically functions as a participant (2.2.5)
Note 1 to entry: An entity is an individual such as a person, organization, physical object, o
...