Arguments and Thematic Roles
Remember predicate and predicator are different.
Task1
In which of the following sentences does the predicate male function as a predicator? Circle your choice.
a. The male gorilla at the zoo had a nasty accident yesterday.
b. The gorilla at the zoo is a male.
c. The gorilla at the zoo is male.
Predication = saying something about something ( i.e. a subject); imparting new information.
PREDICATIONS consist of ARGUMENTS and PREDICATES
Semantics:
PREDICATE is any word (or sequence of words) which can function as the predicator of a sentence.
Syntax:
Subject predicate
1. London is huge [London; huge]
1. Julian loves Julia [love; Julian, Julia]
2. Julia loves Julian [love; Julia, Julian]
3. Julia resembles Julian [resemble; Julia, Julian]
[resemble; Julian, Julia]
Arguments: One-, two- and three-place predicates
1-place
(1) Grass is green.
[proper name] [predicator]
[argument]
(2) The sun shines.
[‘proper name’] [predicator]
[argument]
2-place (dyadic relations)
(3) Monday is before Tuesday
[proper name ] [predicator] [proper name ]
[argument 1] [argument 2]
(4) Monday precedes Tuesday
[proper name] [predicator] [proper name ]
[argument 1] [argument 2]
(5) Julian loves Julia
[proper name] [predicator] [proper name ]
[argument 1] [argument 2]
3-place (triadic relations)
(6) York is between London and Edinburgh
[proper name ] [predicator] [proper name ] [proper name]
[argument 1] [argument 2] [argument 3]
(7) Julia gives Julian a book
[proper name] [predicator] [proper name] [common name]
[argument 1] [argument 2] [argument 3]
(6) & (7)
{semantically} argument1 – predicator + argument2 + argument3
{syntactically} (i) Subject + Predicate
(ii) NP + VP (Chomsky: TG)
(iii) Theme + Rheme (Halliday)
Task2:
1) Are the following sentences acceptable?
a. Thornbury sneezed
b. Thornbury sneezed a handful of pepper
c. Thornberry sneezed his wife a handful of pepper.
2) So is sneeze a one-place predicate
3) Are the following sentences acceptable in normal usage:
a. Martha helped
b. Martha helped John
c. Martha helped John the homework.
4) Is help a one-place predicate?
5) Is die a one-place predicate?
6) Is come a one-place predicate?
7) Is murder a one-place predicate?
Semantic Roles (Thematic roles)
1. (a) Julia kissed Julian.
[AGENT] [PATIENT]
(b) Julian was kissed by Julia.
[PATIENT] [AGENT]
Agent: The initiator of an action, capable of acting with volition
Patient: The entity undergoing the effect of some action, often undergoing some change in state.
2. (a) Julian gave Julia a diamond ring.
[GOAL]
(b) Julian gave a diamond ring to Julia.
[GOAL]
Goal: The entity towards which something moves literally or metaphorically.
3. (a) Julian bought Julia a diamond ring.
[BENEFICIARY]
(b) Julian bought a diamond ring for Julia.
[BENEFICIARY]
(c) Pat told the joke to his friends.
[BENEFICIARY]
Beneficiary: The entity for whose benefit the action was performed.
4. (a) Julian opened the door with a key.
[AGENT] [PATIENT] [INSTRUMENT]
(b) The key opened the door.
[INSTRUMENT] [PATIENT]
(c) The door opened
[PATIENT]
(d) The door was opened with a key
[PATIENT] [INSTRUMENT]
Instrument: The means by which an action is performed or something comes about.
5. (a) The book is in the library.
[THEME]
(b) The apple ripened
[THEME]
Theme: The entity whose location or state is described.
6. (a) Kevin felt ill
[EXPERIENCER]
(b) Mary saw the smoke
[EXPERIENCER]
(c) Laila heard the door shut.
[EXPERIENCER]
Experiencer: The entity which is aware of the action or state described by the predicate but which is not in control of the action or state.
7. (a) The plane came back from Kinshasa.
[SOURCE]
(b) We got the idea from a French magazine.
[SOURCE]
Source: The entity from which something moves either literally or metaphorically.
8. (a) The monster was hiding under the bed.
[LOCATION]
(b) The band was playing in the city arena.
[LOCATION]
Location: The place where something is situated or takes place.
Task3:
Assign a thematic role label to each of the expressions in bold in the following sentences:
a. Helen drove to the party
b. He swatted the fly with a newspaper
c. The baboon was asleep on the roof of my car
d. Joan drank the yard of ginger ale
e. Campbell saw the gun first
f. George gave the doorman a tip
Workshop
TASK1
Are the expressions in bold referring expressions?
(a) We waited for twelve hours at Nairobi Airport.
(b) They had no food.
(c) Edward opened the cupboard and a pair of shoes fell out.
(d) Henry is going to make a cake.
(e) Doris passed through the office like a whirlwind.
(f) He was run over by a bus in Beverly Hills.
(g) What we need is an army of volunteers.
TASK 2: Equative Sentences
An EQUATIVE SENTENCE is one which is used to assert the identity of the referents of referring expressions.
Which of these sentences are equatives?
Try the “reversal test”
(a) Birds are vermin.
(b) My garden is a mess.
(c) You are the second person today to tell me that.
(d) Saladin was a Persian.
(e) Smith’s murderer is insane.
(f) Prince Charles is the heir to the throne.
(g) That is the man I saw go into the bank.
TASK 3: Generic Sentences
A GENERIC SENTENCE is a sentence in which some statement is made about a whole unrestricted class of individuals, as opposed to any particular individual.
Are the following generic sentences?
(a) Gentleman prefer blondes
(b) Jasper is twit
(c) The male of the species guards the eggs
(d) A wasp makes its nest in a hole in a tree
(e) A wasp just stung me on the neck.
TASK 4
What’s wrong?
1. A: Did you see Mary?
B: Yes, I saw.
2. A: What did the tired old lady do?
B: She put her heavy bag.
3. (a) Julian bought.
(b) Julian bought Julia.
(c) Julian bought some roses Julia.
(d) Julian bought Julia
some roses.
TASK 5
1-, 2- and 3-place predicates
Add three items to each column in this table.
| 1-place | 2-place | 3-place |
| X is beautiful | X is similar to Y | X lends Y to Z |
| X is bad | X is better than Y | X compares Y with Z |
| X falls | X sees Y | X puts Y on Z |
TASK 6
- How many arguments (a) do these verbs need to take?
(b) may they take?
In other words, are they 1-place, 2-place or 3-place predicates?
(i) laugh (ii) cut (iii) elapse (iv) send (v) paint
- For each verb, write one sentence with the maximum number of arguments that it can take.
TASK 7
Look at the thematic roles of the arguments (in bold) in the following statements.
e.g. England beat Luxembourg.
[AGENT] [PATIENT]
Julia caught a cold.
[EXPERIENCER] [THEME]
Julian put the book on the shelf.
[AGENT] [PATIENT] [LOCATION]
The train entered the tunnel at full speed.
[THEME] [GOAL]
The windscreen shattered.
[PATIENT]
Now label up these sentences in the same way
- The crowd booed the players.
- Columbus discovered America.
- Julia noticed a stranger in the room.
- Julian lent me ten pounds.
- Julian was given a free ticket for the concert.
- The house stands by the lake.
- Julian shattered the windscreen with a brick.
- The brick shattered the windscreen.
TASK 8
Now write sentences containing the following thematic roles as grammatical (syntactic) subject
(i) AGENT
(ii) EXPERIENCER
- THEME
- PATIENT
- INSTRUMENT
- RECIPIENT
TASK 4
What’s wrong?
1. A: Did you see Mary?
B: Yes, I saw.
[see is a 2-place predicate; must have a grammatical object; entails a PATIENT or THEME
2. A: What did the tired old lady do?
B: She put her heavy bag.
[put requires a LOCATIVE or INCREMENTAL THEME; e.g. She put her heavy bag down]
3. (a) Julian bought.
(b) Julian bought Julia.
(c) Julian bought some roses Julia.
(d) Julian bought Julia some roses.
[buy = a 2- or 3-place predidate; a (di-)transitive verb.
(b) describes an unusual situation in contemporary Western societies – i.e. slavery, unless it refers to white slavery & prostitution!
(c) is ungrammatical in English; (d) is the grammatical version: grammatically, the indirect object precedes the direct; semantically, BENEFICIARY before PATIENT]
TASK 5
1-, 2- and 3-place predicates
Add three items to each column in this table.
| 1-place | 2-place | 3-place |
| X is beautiful | X is similar to Y | X lends Y to Z |
| X is bad | X is better than Y | X compares Y with Z |
| X falls | X sees Y | X puts Y on Z |
| X arrives | X admires Y | X throws Y to Z |
| X is + (any ADJ.) | X is above/below,etc. Y | X borrows (a book) from Y |
| X + (any V intrans.): e.g. X explodes | X is bigger than Y (X + comp. ADJ.) | X fetches Y for Z |
TASK 6
- How many arguments (a) do these verbs need to take?
(b) may they take?
In other words, are they 1-place, 2-place or 3-place predicates?
(i) laugh (ii) cut (iii) elapse (iv) send (v) paint
- For each verb, write one sentence with the maximum number of arguments that it can take.
(i) Jack laughed (1-place) Contrast: laugh at: 2-place; transitive
- The knife cut the cake (2-place). Intransitive use possible
- Time elapsed (1-place). No other entailment.
- Julian sent Julia a letter (3-place). Possible as a 2-place predicate.
- Julian painted Julia a portrait (3-place). Ditto.
TASK 7
Now label up these sentences in the same way
- The crowd booed the players.
[AGENT] [PATIENT]
- Columbus discovered America.
[AGENT] [GOAL]
- Julia noticed a stranger in the room.
[EXPERIENCER] [THEME?] [LOCATION]
- Julian lent me ten pounds.
[AGENT] [BENEFICIARY] [THEME?]
- Julian was given a free ticket for the concert.
[PATIENT] [THEME] [GOAL?]
- The house stands by the lake.
[THEME] [LOCATION]
- Julian shattered the windscreen with a brick.
[AGENT] [PATIENT] [INSTRUMENT]
- The brick shattered the windscreen.
[INSTRUMENT] [PATIENT
TASK 8
Now write sentences containing the following thematic roles as grammatical (syntactic) subject
- AGENT
e.g. Joyce beat Paula in this year’s Great North Run.
- EXPERIENCER
e.g. Julia felt cold
- THEME
e.g. The earth moved, catastrophically in Turkey.
- PATIENT
e.g. England were beaten by New Zealand
- INSTRUMENT
e.g. The mower cut the grass
- RECIPIENT
e.g. Julia received her degree from the Vice-Chancellor himself