Frame First, Then Extract: A Frame-Semantic Reasoning Pipeline for Zero-Shot Relation Triplet Extraction

Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown impressive capabilities in language understanding and generation, leading to growing interest in zero-shot relation triplet extraction (Ze-roRTE), a task that aims to extract triplets for unseen relations without annotated data. However, existing methods typically depend on costly fine-tuning and lack the structured semantic guidance required for accurate and interpretable extraction. To overcome these limitations, we propose FrameRTE, a novel Ze-roRTE framework that adopts a "frame first, then extract" paradigm. Rather than extracting triplets directly, FrameRTE first constructs high-quality Relation Semantic Frames (RSFs) through a unified pipeline that integrates frame retrieval, synthesis, and enhancement. These RSFs serve as structured and interpretable knowledge scaffolds that guide frozen LLMs in the extraction process. Building upon these RSFs, we further introduce a human-inspired three-stage reasoning pipeline consisting of semantic frame evocation, frame-guided triplet extraction, and core frame elements validation to achieve semantically constrained extraction. Experiments demonstrate that FrameRTE achieves competitive zero-shot performance on multiple benchmarks. Moreover, the RSFs we construct serve as high-quality semantic resources that can enhance other extraction methods, showcasing the synergy between linguistic knowledge and foundation models. * Corresponding author. Frame ( Work ) An Agent expends effort towards achieving a Goal. Alternatively, a Salient_entity involved in the Goal can be expressed in place of a Goal expression. Definition Agent: The Agent puts effort into reaching Goal. Core Frame Elements Goal: The Goal is what the Agent expends effort to achieve. Salient_entity: An entity that is centrally involved in the Goal that the Agent is attempting to acheive. Circumstances , Degree, Depictive, Descriptor, Domain, Duration, … Non-Core Frame Elements work.n, work.v, bang away.v, plug away.v, … Lexical Units • In addition, our organization will work on improving accountability in every department. • If somebody is working on the pipes of your house and you turn on the faucet hard, you get sand, junk. • You could see several students plugging away at the problem. Demonstration Frame (Attempt) Frame (Seeking_to_achieve)