Louis Hébert , Tools for Text and Image Analysis : An Introduction to Applied Semiotics

A tool introduced by Rastier (and based on Sowa, 1984), the semantic graph can be used to represent any semantic structure in terms of semes and the relations between them. The semes are the nodes of the semantic graph (shown in boxes or brackets) and the relations are the links (shown in ellipses or parentheses). The arrows indicate the direction of the relation between nodes. Most semantic structures can be described using fifteen or so different links – like ERG (ergative) for the agent of an action and ACC (accusative) for the patient of an action. This is an example of a simple graph: [Prince] ← (ERG) ← [RESCUE] → (ACC) → [Princess].