Narrative Time Frame
- CURIE:
gmeow:NarrativeTimeFrame - IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/NarrativeTimeFrame
- Category: class
- Defined by:
gmeow:slices/narrative - Box roles: TBox role (What is this?)
A coordinate system for narrative position — the reference frame in which 'where in the story' is expressed. Exactly one axis kind per frame: discourse time (the order of telling — chapter indices, scene ordinals — owned by the telling work, since different editions may re-segment) or story time (the order of happening in-universe — the fabula — owned by a NarrativeReferenceFrame, since continuities can reorder it). The same diegetic event may carry coexisting positions in a discourse frame and a story frame; their disagreement IS the flashback, made queryable rather than contradictory.
Structure
Subclass of: gmeow:ReferenceFrame
Practical Pattern
Use gmeow:NarrativeTimeFrame as a specialized kind of gmeow:ReferenceFrame. Add statement metadata or a standpoint when the assertion needs provenance, confidence, or vantage.
Example Snippets
These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.
Flashback
- Source:
slices/extensions/narrative/examples/flashback.ttl - Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-extensions-narrative-examples-flashback
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: a flashback IS a disagreement between two time frames (,
# , P9). Narrative time has two co-equal axes, neither the truth of the other:
# DISCOURSE time (syuzhet — the order of telling, owned by the telling work) and
# STORY time (fabula — the order of happening, owned by a continuity). Each is a
# gmeow:NarrativeTimeFrame (a ReferenceFrame). The same diegetic event carries a
# gmeow:NarrativePosition in EACH frame; when its discourse ordinal and story
# ordinal disagree, that disagreement is precisely the flashback — made queryable
# rather than contradictory. Here the protagonist's birth happens first in the
# story (ordinal 0) but is told only in chapter 5 (discourse ordinal 5).
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/narrative/> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
# --- DISCOURSE-time frame: the order of telling, owned by the novel.
ex:discourseFrame a gmeow:NarrativeTimeFrame ;
rdfs:label "telling order of the novel"@en ;
gmeow:narrativeTimeAxis gmeow:axisDiscourseTime ;
gmeow:discourseTimeOf ex:novel ;
gmeow:frameRealm gmeow:frameRealmNarrative ;
gmeow:hasAxis ex:narrativeOrder ;
gmeow:dimensionCount "1"^^xsd:nonNegativeInteger ;
gmeow:frameKind gmeow:frameKindNarrative ;
gmeow:requiresHost false ;
gmeow:determinacyModel gmeow:determinacyDisputed .