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Thematic role is the semantic relationship between a predicate (e.g. a verb) and an argument (e.g. the noun phrases) of a sentence. Thematic roles include: Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
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Semantics (Greek semantikos, giving signs, significant, symptomatic, from sema, sign) refers to the aspects of meaning that are expressed in a language, code, or other form of representation. ...
In linguistics and logic, a predicate is an expression that can be true of something. ...
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A syntactic verb argument, in linguistics, is a phrase that appears in a relationship with the verb in a proposition. ...
In linguistics, a noun phrase is a phrase whose Head is a noun. ...
In linguistics, a sentence is a unit of language, characterised in most languages by the presence of a finite verb. ...
- Agent: deliberately performs the action (e.g. Bill ate his soup quietly)
- Experiencer: receives sensory or emotional input (e.g. The smell of lilies filled Jennifer's nostrils).
- Theme: Is the recipient of an action but does not change its state, e.g. Bill gave MARY a present.
- Patient: undergoes the action and has its state changed (e.g. The falling rocks crushed the car)
- Instrument: used to carry out the action (e.g. Jamie cut the ribbon with a pair of scissors).
- Cause: mindlessly performs the action (e.g. An avalanche destroyed the ancient temple).
- Location: where the action occurs (e.g. Johnny and Linda played carelessly in the park).
- Goal: what the action is directed towards (e.g. The caravan continued on toward the distant oasis).
- Source: where the action originated (e.g. The rocket was launched from Central Command).
In linguistics, a grammatical agent is an entity that carries out an action. ...
In linguistics, a grammatical patient is an entity upon whom an action is carried out. ...
Features
- Thematic roles are the same in sentences that are paraphrases.
- Thematic roles may remain the same in sentences that are not paraphrases.
- Thematic roles have sometimes been associated with a theory known as Case theory, as in many languages thematic roles are reflected in the case which the noun assumes. However, nowadays most linguists deny the grammatical visibility (i.e. the morpho-syntactic marking) of thematic roles, as most languages do not mark thematic roles homomorphically: For example, in German Nominative can realize Agent, Experiencer, or THEME. In contrast, other languages (like Thai) have no such markings at all and others (like English) employ word regularities to express the thematic constellations of a sentence.
- Theta-criterion: in a sentence, each thematic role is assigned to a single noun phrase, and each noun phrase bears a unique thematic role. This is a proposed universal principle of grammar. (See also Universal grammar.) This feature is known as bi-uniqueness.
- Thematic roles separate pleonastic (dummy) noun phrases, which lack a thematic role, such as it in it is going to rain, from meaningful noun phrases, which have one.
Universal grammar is a theory of linguistics postulating principles of grammar shared by all languages, thought to be innate to humans. ...
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