| Additional meaning | In addition to the 80 core meanings, the contributors were also allowed to add verbs that have other meanings. These are called additional meanings. |
| Alternation | A valency alternation is defined as a set of two different coding frames that are productively (or at least regularly) associated with both members of a set of verb pairs sharing the same verb stem. Alternations may be coded (marked by an affix on the verb, or by an auxiliary, like the English Passive) or uncoded (like the English Dative alternation). |
| Argument type | Arguments are classified into cross-linguistic argument types: A (argument coded like the 'breaker' of 'break'), P (argument coded like the 'broken thing' of 'break'), S (sole argument of a verb that lacks A and P), I (argument coded like the instrument of 'cut'), L (coded like the sitting location of 'sit'), and X (all others). |
| Basic Coding frame | A basic coding frame is a coding frame of a basic verb, i.e. one that is the counterpart of a ValPaL meaning and that is considered basic for the purposes of the database. |
| Coding frame | The coding frame of a verb contains the information about the way its arguments are coded, either flagged (by adpositions and case-markers on the arguments) or indexed (by person-markers on the verb). |
| Coding set | A coding set is the coding means of an argument. If the argument is only flagged (coded by an adposition or case), its coding set consists of the flag. If it is only indexed, the coding set consist of the index-series (e.g. subject marking). If it is both flagged and indexed, it consists of both flag and index-series. |
| Contributor | A contributor is an author who contributed a database to ValPaL. |
| Core meaning | One of the 80 meanings that all Language contributions have a Verb form for. |
| Derived coding frame | A derived coding frame is a coding frame of a verb that is derived from the basic verb, by way of an alternation. |
| Example | Glossed examples illustrate verbs, coding frames, and alternations. |
| Language contribution | A language contribution to ValPaL is a separtely citable online publication that has the same status as a chapter in an edited book. |
| Microrole | A microrole is the semantic role of an argument of an individual verb, e.g. the 'breaker' of a 'break' event. |
| Role frame
| The role frame of a verb meaning is the set of microroles of its arguments. |
| Verb form | The citation form of a verb that is the counterpart of a ValPaL verb meaning. |
| Verb meaning | The 80 ValPaL verb meanings are comparison meanings that were chosen for representativeness and comparability. |
