Roleset frighten.01 Verbnet Class: 1 "frighten":

Roles:

Arg0:cause of fear


Arg1:frightened entity


Arg2:instrument, if separate from arg0


Arg3:intensifier

Examples:

transitive (-)
Such disclosures of big holdings often are used by raiders *trace* to try *trace* to frighten a company's managers.
Arg0:	*trace* -> *trace* -> raiders
REL:	frighten
Arg1:	a company 's managers




with instrument (-)
Mary frightened John with her blood-red fingernails.
Arg0:	Mary
REL:	frightened
Arg1:	John
Arg2-with:	her blood-red fingernails




instrumental subject (-)
Mary's blood-red nails frightened John.
Arg0:	Mary's blood-red nails
REL:	frightened
Arg1:	John




with intensifier (-)
It won't take much more *trace* to ``frighten the hell out of retail investors,'' he says.
Arg0:	*trace* -> much more
REL:	frighten
Arg3:	the hell
Arg1:	out of retail investors




another intensifier example (-)
``Small investors are absolutely dismayed that Wall Street is stacking the deck against them, and these wide swings are frightening them to death.
Arg0:	these wide swings
REL:	frightening
Arg1:	them
Arg3:	to death

Unlike some of the other verbs which haven't tried to distinguish agent and subject, you really must try with psych verbs. It's bad enough that we're ignoring the distinction between intentional agent and non-intentional (but still non-instrumental) agent. For example, in the second example, did Mary really *mean* to frighten John, or was it an accident? The former would make her an intentional agent, the latter an unintentional agent. This can only be determined by a LOT of context, which we don't have, and even then it can be hard to tell.

Roleset frighten.02 Verbnet Class: 1 "frighten and make go away":

Roles:

Arg0:cause of fear


Arg1:frightened entity


Arg2:instrument, if separate from arg0

Examples:

automatically generated (-)
Their opposition helped *trace* frighten off some Japanese banks .
Arg0:	*trace* -> Their opposition
REL:	[ frighten] [ off]
Arg1:	some Japanese banks

This is pretty clearly an intentional subject, but frighten off could also take an unintentional subject.

Roleset frighten.03 Verbnet Class: 1 "frighten and make go away":

Roles:

Arg0:causer of fear


Arg1:frightened entity


Arg2:instrument, if separate from arg0

Examples:

automatically generated (-)
Mr. DaPuzzo also complained that the sharp swings in stock prices lately is frightening away retail and foreign investors.
Arg0:	the sharp swings in stock prices
ArgM-TMP:	lately
REL:	[ frightening] [ away]
Arg1:	retail and foreign investors