Thematic roles语义学.ppt

Thematic roles(题元角色） Main content Definition Classification Some variation in usage Tests for identifying thematic roles and the difficulties to identify thematic roles Grammatical relations and thematic roles 1.Definition e.g.： Gina raised the car with a jack. These roles in the semantics have different names, for example, participant role(Levinson: 1983), semantic role( Payne: 1997) and thematic role( Dowty, Jackendoff). 2.Classification Agent Patient Theme Experiencer Beneficiary Instrument Location Goal Source Agent Agent: the initiator of some action, capable of acting with volition or the entity that performs the action. E.g.: She borrowed a book from the library. The wind blew the ball away. The dog caught the ball. Patient Patient: the entity that undergoes the effect of some action, often undergoes a certain change of state. e.g.：The hunter bit the lion. The lion was bitten by the hunter. The sun melted the ice. Theme Theme: the entity which is moved by an action, or whose location is described. e.g.: Robert passed the ball to me. The ball was red. The book is in the library. Experiencer Experiencer: the entity which is aware of the action or state described by the predicate but which is not in the control of the action or state. e.g.： John felt ill. Marry saw the smoke. John sometimes satounds me with his wit. Beneficiary Beneficiary: the entity for whose benefit the action was performed. e.g.: Robert filled the form for his grandmother. They basked me a cake. Instrument Instrument: the means by which an action is performed or something comes about. e.g.: John was injured with a stone. John was injured by a stone. Location Location: the place in which something is situated or takes place. e.g.: The monster was hiding under the bed. The book is on the desk. Goal Goal: the entity towards which something moves, either literally or metaphorically.