It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Thematic role. (Discuss) In linguistics, a theta role or θ-role is the semantic role a noun phrase plays in a sentence. The term thematic role denotes the same concept. As such it is a semantic rather than a syntactic feature, in contrast to such notions as the subject of a sentence or a prepositional object. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Theta role. ...
Linguistic typology is the typology that classifies languages by their features. ...
Morphological typology was developed by brothers Friedrich and August von Schlegel. ...
An analytic language (or isolating language) is a language in which the vast majority of morphemes are free morphemes and considered to be full-fledged words. By contrast, in a synthetic language, a word is composed of agglutinated or fused morphemes that denote its syntactic meanings. ...
A synthetic language, in linguistic typology, is a language with a high morpheme-to-word ratio. ...
A fusional language is a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by its tendency to squish together many morphemes in a way which can be difficult to segment. ...
It has been suggested that Agglutination be merged into this article or section. ...
Polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i. ...
Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ...
In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. ...
A nominative-accusative language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of transitive verbs distinguishing them from the subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs. ...
An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the subject of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ...
An active language is one where the only argument of an intransitive verb (that is, the subject) is marked sometimes in the same way as the subject of a transitive verb, and some other times in the same way as the direct object of a transitive verb. ...
A tripartite language is one that marks the agent, experiencer, and patient verb arguments each in different ways. ...
A direct-inverse language is one where morphosyntactic markers vary according to compliance or non-compliance with normal rules governing the neutral order of verb arguments with respect to the position of each on the animacy hierarchy, similar to the way that Indo-European neuters were not originally regarded as...
The syntactic pivot is the verb argument around which sentences revolve, in a given language. ...
Word order, in linguistic typology, refers to the order in which words appear in sentences across different languages. ...
VO languages are primarily right-branching, or head-initial, i. ...
In linguistic typology, subject-verb-object (SVO) is the sequence subject verb object in neutral expressions: Sam ate oranges. ...
Verb Subject Object—commonly used in its abbreviated form VSO—is a term in linguistic typology. ...
Verb Object Subject - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOS - is a term in Linguistic typology. ...
OV languages are primarily left-branching, or head-final, i. ...
In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV) is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear (usually) in that order. ...
Object Subject Verb (OSV) is one of the permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology. ...
Object Verb Subject (OVS) is one of the permutations of expression used in linguistic typology. ...
Time Manner Place is a term used in linguistic typology to state the general order of adpositional phrases in a languages sentences: yesterday by car to the store. It is common among SOV languages. ...
Place Manner Time is a term used in linguistic typology to state the general order of adpositional phrases in a languages sentences: to the store by car yesterday. It would seem that it is common among SVO languages. ...
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist or linguistician. ...
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. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Theta role. ...
In the main, semantics (from the Greek semantikos, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ...
Syntax, originating from the Greek words συν (syn, meaning co- or together) and τάξις (táxis, meaning sequence, order, arrangement), can be described as the study of the rules, or patterned relations that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. ...
See subject (grammar) for the linguistic definition of subject. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ...
For instance, in the sentence Debra broke the window, "Debra" is both the subject of the sentence and the agent and "the window" is the object of the verb and the patient. But in The window was broken by Debra, "Debra" is still the agent, even though "the window" is now the subject of the sentence. 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. ...
Major theta roles
Here is a list of the major theta roles, using the example sentence, Debra broke the window with a bat and Jack fell asleep. - The agent (A) is whoever is intentionally carrying out some action. In the first example sentence, Debra is the agent.
- The experiencer (S) is someone/thing who experiences some state. Thus, in Jack fell asleep, Jack is the experiencer. This is because Jack is not an agent, in that he did not "fall himself asleep". One semantic test used to distinguish the two roles is to ask if "I promise to..." makes sense. E.g., "I promise to break the window" versus ?"I promise to fall asleep". Another is "What did she do?" versus "What happened to her?": ("What did she do?"/"She broke the window." versus "What happened to her?"/"She fell asleep.")
- The patient or theme (O) is whatever is acted on. Thus the window is the patient.
- The instrument is whatever is being used to perform the action; the bat is the instrument.
Other theta roles exist in the literature, but many tend to be more controversial.
Relationship of syntax to theta roles In languages such as English which rely heavily on word order and use frequent passivization, identification of theta roles from merely syntactic clues is often impossible. In more heavily case-marked languages, however, more information is often encoded syntactically. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...
In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ...
Many languages, for instance, have an instrumental case, which explicitly marks the instrument of a sentence. However, in such languages the instrumental case may have other uses (such as being governed by certain prepositions). In linguistics, the instrumental case indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ...
Although either the patient or agent can function as the subject of a sentence even in unmarked usages, in ergative-absolutive and tripartite languages the case marking of the "subject" differs depending on the type of verb used, in a way that tends to reflect the theta role it occupies. See subject (grammar) for the linguistic definition of subject. ...
In linguistics, a marker is a free or bound morpheme that indicates the grammatical function of the marked word or sentence. ...
An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the subject of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ...
A tripartite language is one that marks the agent, experiencer, and patient verb arguments each in different ways. ...
Uniqueness Generally, only one noun phrase can occupy a certain theta role in a sentence. This does not include conjunctions such as Bill and Ted went shopping, or I was attacked by cats and by dogs. But a sentence such as The car broke the window with its fender strongly implies for most speakers that the car is acting as an agent, because the car and the fender cannot both be instruments.
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