Semantic Roles and Semantic Configurations

A semantic roleis the underlying relationship that a participant has with the

main verb in a clause. It is also known as semantic case, thematic role, theta role

(generative grammar),and deep case(case grammar). Semantic role is the actual

role a participant plays in some real or imagined situation, apart from the linguistic

encoding of those situations. If, in some real or imagined situation, someone

named John purposely hits someone named Bill, then John is the agent and Bill is the patient of the hitting event. Therefore, the semantic role of Bill is the same (patient) in both of the following sentences:

John hit Bill. Bill was hit by John.

In both of the above sentences, John has the semantic role of agent.

A set of semantic roles and an action expressed by a verb constitute a

linguistic semantic model of an extralinguistic situation and are called semantic

configuration. The set of semantic roles preset by the lexico-semantic peculiarities

of the verb makes us the role structure of the verb.The semantic configuration is

the semantic minimum of the sentence. The role structure of an actual sentence

may include roles that are not part of the semantic minimum.

The theoretical status of semantic roles in linguistic theory is still a largely

unresolved issue. For example, there is considerable doubt about whether semantic

roles should be regarded as syntactic, lexical or semantic/conceptual entities.

However, the most common understanding is that semantic roles are

semantic/conceptual elements. It should be noticed that there is no agreement

about which and how many roles are needed. This is precisely one of the major

drawbacks of the semantic role list approach. Although most theories of thematic

roles assume that there is only a small finite number of them, no consensus has

been reached on the number or nature of the roles. Proposals range from just a few

to hundreds of them. The most common semantic roles include:

Agent/Causer: The ‘doer’ or instigator of the action denoted by the predicate.

e.g. John killed Harry.

Patient: The ‘undergoer’ of the action or event denoted by the predicate.

e.g. Mary fell over

Theme: A participant which is characterized as changing its position or condition,

or as being in a state or position.

e.g. The cat died.

Experiencer: The living entity that experiences the action or event denoted by the

predicate.

e.g. John felt happy

Recipient/Possessor: Entity receiving/ possessing some entity.

e.g. John got Mary a present

Goal: The location or entity in the direction of which something moves.

e.g. John went home.

Benefactive: The entity that benefits from the action or event denoted by the

predicate.

e.g. He showed me the stone.

Source: Object from which motion proceeds.

e.g. Mother promised me a new toy.

Factitive: The result of the action denoted by the predicate.

e.g. Mother baked scones.

Instrument: The medium by which the action or event denoted by the predicate is

carried out.

e.g. The key opened the door.

Locative: The specification of the place where the action or event denoted by the

predicate in situated.

e.g. The building houses several organizations.

It should be noted that some semantic roles can be minimized, that is

become a component of the semantic structure of a word. Presence of a mini-role

in a verb’s semantics prevents it from appearing in the sentence.

e.g. to floor – to bring down to the floor (locative)

He floored the intruder with one blow. - * He floored the intruder to the

floor with one blow.

to bag – to put into a bag (locative)

to nose – to push with the nose (instrument)

to sugar – to saturate with sugar (material/substance)

to catholicize – to turn to Catholicism (factitive)

to feed – to supply food (patient)

to winter – to stay during the winter (temporative)

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1259