James Whitney, Digital Harmony:

A musical note has no meaning in itself.

It is the combination of notes that make music.

Likewise, one frame of patterns can be meaningless.  This idea is more difficult to accept - but in movies, we are misled.  A still from a movie may show an actor at mid-thrust in a duel with death itself.  That 'frame' is a picture worth a thousand words.  As a frame, though - these patterns speak too few of the thousand words.  

Sounding an A minor chord, or striking A above middle C has no meaning in itself, and tells us too little, say, about a sonata by Mozart.

Just so, a frame of one pattern "has no meaning in itself" and tells us too little about the action.