1、Thematic roles(题元角色）Main Main contentcontentDefinitionClassificationSome variation in usageTests for identifying thematic roles and the difficulties to identify thematic rolesGrammatical relations and thematic roles 1.Definitione.g.：Gina raised the car with a jack.These roles in the semantics have d
2、ifferent names,for example,participant role(Levinson:1983),semantic role(Payne:1997)and thematic role(Dowty,Jackendoff).2.Classification1.Agent2.Patient 3.Theme 4.Experiencer5.Beneficiary6.Instrument7.Location8.Goal9.SourceAgent Agent:the initiator of some action,capable of acting with volition or t
3、he 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.PatientPatient: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
4、.The sun melted the ice.ThemeTheme: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.ExperiencerExperiencer:the entity which is aware of the action or state described by the predicate but which is not i
5、n the control of the action or state.e.g.：John felt ill.Marry saw the smoke.John sometimes satounds me with his wit.BeneficiaryBeneficiary:the entity for whose benefit the action was performed.e.g.:Robert filled the form for his grandmother.They basked me a cake.InstrumentInstrument:the means by whi
6、ch an action is performed or something comes about.e.g.:John was injured with a stone.John was injured by a stone.LocationLocation: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.GoalGoal:the entity towards which something mov
7、es,either literally or metaphorically.e.g.:Pat told the joke to his friend.She handed the magazine back to George.SourceSource:the entity from which something moves,either literally or metaphorically.e.g.:The plane came back from Beijing.She borrowed a magazine from George.3.Some variation in usagen
8、 Radford(1988)treats Patient and Theme as different names for the same role.Patient is reserved for entities acted upon and changed by the verds action.Theme descried an entity moved in literal or figurative space by the action of the verb,but constitutionly unchanged.e.g.:Fred shattered the rock.(P
9、atient)Fred threw the rock.(Theme)4.Tests for identifying thematic roles and difficulties to identify thematic roles4.1 Tests for identifying thematic rolesTest for Agent:Jackendoff(1972),whether the phrases like deliberately,on purpose,in order to etc can be added to the sentence.e.g.:John took the
10、 book from Bill in order to read it.(Agent)John received the book from Bill in order to read it.(Not Agent)This reflect the fact that an agent characteristically diaplays animacy and volition.(这反映了代理格具有生命和意志的特性）4.2 Difficulties to identify thematic roles在实际应用中，有时候很难辨别哪种角色由哪一类特殊的名词短语来表示。a:Fergus carr
11、ied the bag to the lighthouse.b:Mary bought him a sports car.c:John received a gift of flowers.It is obvious that the lighthouse is the goal,him is the beneficiary,but how about John?It is the goal,beneficiary,or the recipient?So here the question is,if the same physical entity can appear in two or
12、more different thematic roles?E.g.:The boy kicked himself.Here the question is if we can say the boy is the agent and at the same time the theme?u One main diea of the Principles and the Parameters theory of Chomskey(Chomskey的原则和参数理论）is that the relationship between the noun phrases and the thematic
13、 roles is theta criterion（一 一对应关系）.uJackendoff(1972)hold the view that one entity or one noun phrase can undertake more than one thematic roles at the same time.In Jackenoff the idea that one nominal might fulfil more than one role is elaborated into a theory of tires of thematic roles:A:a thematic
14、tires,which describes spatial relations.B:an action tire which describes ACTOR-PATIENT type relations.a.Peter threw the ball.Source Theme (thematic tire)Actor Patient (action tier)b.Bill enter the room.Theme Goal (thematic tire)Actor (action tire)c.Bill received a letter.Goal Theme (thematic tire)(a
15、ction tire)Presumably these tires would divide thematic roles into two types:a.Action tire roles:actor,agent,experiencer,patient,beneficiary,instrument.b.Thematic tire roles:theme,goal,source,location.Grammatical relations and thematic roles Lets look at some examples of thematic role omission below
16、:uPeter broke the ice with a pickaxepk,ks镐.uThe pickaxe broke the ice.uThe ice broke.Several writers have suggested that this process of different roles occupying the subject position is a hierarchical process,not only in English but across many languages.The observation is that when speakers are co
17、nstructing a sentence,they tend to place an agent to subject position,the next preference being for recipient or beneficiary,then theme/patient,then other roles.This sometimes described as an implicational hierarchy.We can construct a simple example of a universal subject hierarchy.agentrecipient/be
18、nefactivetheme/patientinstrumentlocationThis diagram can be read in two ways:a)b)u Experiencer subjects:I forget the address.u Recipient subjects:She received a demand for unpaid tax.The building suffered a direct hit.u Patient subject:The bowl cracked.u Theme subjects:The arrow flew through the air.u Instrument subjects:The key opened the lock.It is little difficult to think of English examples with location as subject,unless we include sentences like this:uLocation subject:This cottage sleeps five adults.
