CAS LX 502 5b. Theta roles Chapter 6

Roles in an event Pat pushed the cart into the corner with a stick. This sentence describes an event, tying together several participants: The event is a pushing event Pat is the instigator of the event The cart is affected (moved) during the event The corner marks the endpoint of the path A stick is the instrument used to effect the movement

Thematic roles Agent: initiator, capable of acting with volition Patient: entity undergoing change Theme: entity moved or located Experiencer: Aware of event, but not in control Beneficiary: Entity for whose benefit the event occurs Instrument: Means by which event comes about Location: Place in which event occurs Goal: Entity/place toward which something moves Source: Entity/place from which something moves

 -grids Among the pieces of information stored in our mental lexicon about predicates is the  - grid of a predicate. The predicate names a kind of event, and specifies what entities play a role in the event. put V: Pat put the book on the table.

 -grids put V: Pat put the book on the table. Conventionally, only required  -roles are listed in the  -roles. That is,  -roles that are necessary in specifying the event. *Pat put on the table. *Pat put the book. Pat put the book on the table with a spatula.

Arguments and adjuncts An argument is required by the  -grid. An adjunct is superfluous, less connected to the event, freer in ordering. Can be added to further specify any kind of compatible event. *Pat put the fork. Pat put the fork on the table. Pat put the fork on the table with gusto at 6pm. Pat put the fork on the table at 6pm with gusto. With gusto, Pat put the fork on the table at 6pm. *Pat put the form at 6pm with gusto on the table. *On the table, Pat put the fork at 6pm with gusto.

Classes of verbs We can classify verbs by the number of  -roles in their  -grids. Intransitive: trip Transitive: kick Ditransitive: put Atransitive: rain Sort of. The baby kicked, Pat tripped Tracy, Chris read (the book). It’s more complicated than it seems.

Classes of verbs Even apart from valency (number of arguments in the  - grid), we can identify lots of classes of verbs that behave alike in terms of  -roles. give, lend, supply, pay, donate, contribute V: receive, accept, borrow, buy, purchase, rent, hire V: break, open, sink, collapse V: V: eat, drink, read, paint V: V:

What are the  -roles? How do we know that the list of  -roles we have is right? We don’t. We can group  -roles in various ways, or subdivide them. The question is what provides the greatest insight to linguistic structure. The rock frightens Pat. Pat frightens the rock. The car ran over the nail in the road. Theme = Patient? Recipient = Goal = Beneficiary? Does it matter? Actor vs. Agent? Malicious Agent vs. Benevolent Agent?

Can an argument get more than one  -role? Pat threw the ball to Tracy. Yes. (e.g., Jackendoff) Pat: Agent, Source; the ball: Patient, Theme; Tracy: Goal. No. (e.g., Chomsky)  -roles can contain more than one  -relation, but it is linguistically one role (bundle of  -relations). Pat [Agent, Source].

Subjects and objects We can identify parts of sentences as subjects, predicates, objects. Often these are defined by position and by case. I met her. She met me. Grammatical roles and  -roles are dissociable. Pat closed the door. The door closed.

Linking Almost any  -role can be a structural subject. Chris planned the heist. Tracy saw the crime occur. The window broke. The hammer smashed the glass. Chris tripped. Chris got a summons.

Linking There are tendencies at least. If there’s an Agent, it is the subject. The exam failed Pat. Otherwise, if there’s an instrument, it is the subject. The hammer broke the vase. Otherwise, if there’s a Theme or Patient, it is the subject. The vase broke. *The vase broke with the hammer.

Linking hierarchies Determining which  -role is the subject? Agent/Experiencer > Instrument > Theme/Patient Pat broke the vase on Tuesday with a hammer. The hammer broke the vase on Tuesday. The vase broke on Tuesday (*with a hammer) The dog ate my homework. My homework was eaten (by the dog). Tracy was given my homework. *A fork was eaten my homework.

Why  -roles? We are trying to describe generalizations about language, meaning, the mapping to structure. We can imagine a lot of different kinds of roles. E.g., Patient could undergo a lot of different degrees of affectedness Touch (no change) Squeeze (temporary change) Break (fundamental change)

Dowty on  -roles Fine-grain:  -roles are really collections of entailments. E.g., “does a volitional act”, “with intent”, “moves or changes externally.” Many verbs share this entailment with their most prominent argument (“Agent”). Course-grain: There are only these collections of  -roles, of two kinds (Proto-Agent, Proto-Patient). Which collection plays the more prominent role depends on the constitution of the collection (relatively).

Proto-Agent, Proto-Patient Proto-Agent Volitional involvement Sentience/perception Causing event or change of state in another participant Movement relative to another participant Proto-Patient Undergoes change of state Incremental theme Causally affected by another participant Stationary relative to another participant Agent is a prototypical Proto-Agent. Experiencer, less so, Instrument less so. Patient is a prototypical Proto-Patient, Beneficiary less so.

Why  -roles? We get some generalization power by considering  -roles, allowing us to define classes of verbs that share similar behavior. As an example, psychological verbs (admire, enjoy, amuse, frighten), which have an Experiencer and a Stimulus (or Percept). Two types, differing in the linking of arguments to syntactic positions. Point here: we need to refer to  -roles to differentiate the two types.

Psych verbs Type 1 (Subject-experiencer) admire, enjoy, fear, like, love, relish, savor V: Type 2 (Object-experiencer) amuse, entertain, frighten, interest, please, surprise, thrill V:

 -roles and language description Saeed gives the example of Lakhota, which morphological marks Patient and Agent (hence we need the concepts to adequately describe the language). Agent subjects or objects wa- Patient subjects or objects ma-

Active vs. Passive (Voice) Pat ate the sandwich The sandwich was eaten (by Pat) Passive removes/demotes the Agent/Experiencer, promoting the next  -role to subject. eatV: (active) eatenV: (passive) The book was given to Pat.(theme) Pat was given a book.(recipient) The shot was heard ’round the world.(percept) The kids were frightened.(experiencer) The ghost was feared.(stimulus)

Passive Generally, only the highest argument can be promoted to subject position in the passive. He sprayed paint on the wall. He sprayed the wall with paint. Paint was sprayed on the wall. The wall was sprayed with paint. *The wall was sprayed paint on. *Paint was sprayed the wall with. He loaded hay onto the truck. He loaded the truck with hay. Hay was loaded onto the truck. The truck was loaded with hay. *The truck was loaded hay onto. *Hay was loaded the truck with. He gave a book to Mary. He gave Mary a book. A book was given to Mary. Mary was given a book. *Mary was given a book to. *A book was given Mary.

Passive usage Passives are often useful to “background” the subject (either to total omission or at least to a less prominent role). Pat took a trip to Providence yesterday. The police arrested him. He was arrested by the police. He sprayed the car with paint. #The car was sprayed with paint.

Middles Middles are sort of like passives: the Agent/Experiencer is suppressed and the next  - role is promoted to subject. The verb does not take on a passive form (in English), and the construction is generally only available to describe a degree of “success”: Pat broke the calculator. The calculator was broken. This calculator breaks easily.

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