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Understanding Semantic Roles in Linguistics

The document discusses semantic roles which describe the underlying relationship participants have with the main verb in a clause. It defines several semantic roles including Actor, Affected, Affecting, Agent, Associate, Effect, Place, Theme, and discusses valency zero, one and two verbs.

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Ayu Mareta M
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28 views12 pages

Understanding Semantic Roles in Linguistics

The document discusses semantic roles which describe the underlying relationship participants have with the main verb in a clause. It defines several semantic roles including Actor, Affected, Affecting, Agent, Associate, Effect, Place, Theme, and discusses valency zero, one and two verbs.

Uploaded by

Ayu Mareta M
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Semantic Roles

Underlying relationship that participant


{ has with the main verb in a clause.
Actor is the role of an argument
that performs some action without
affecting any other entity.

Example: Sylvia left

Actor
Affected is the role of an argument
that undergoes a change due to
some event or is affected by some
other entity.

Example: A window broke

Affected
Affecting is the role of an argument
that, without any action affects
another entity.

Example: Betty likes opera

Affecting
Agent is the role of an argument
that, by its action, affects some
other entity

Example: Tom broke the window

Agent
Associate is the role of an
argument that tells the status or
identity or another argument

Example: Roger is a student

Associate
Effect is the role of an argument
that comes into existence through
the action of the predicate,

Example: Rara baked a pie

Effect
Place is the role of an argument
that names the location in which the
action of the predicate occurs.

Example: The fireman climbed a


ladder.

Place
Theme is the role of an argument
that is the topic of a predicate that
does not express action – a stative
predicate

Example: Audrey is a computer


expert

Theme
It is snowing.
The first sentence in the group above has the verb snow, and the
subject is it, but it doesn’t name anything.
The sentence has a subject because English requires a subject,
but this subject does not correspond to anything in the
underlying proposition. We say that snow is a zero-argument
verb.
Other examples:
-lt’s raining
-It sleeted

Valency zero
My brother snores
This sentence has the verb snore and a subject my brother. It
have a subject but no object. They are intransitive verbs or, in
our terminology, one-argument predicates.
Example:
- The dog is sleeping.
- Larry laughed.
- A volcano erupted.

Valency one
Chris is making an omelet
It take a subject and an object; they are two-argument
predicates. We can’t simply say *Chris is making. A
statement with make must contain a mention of who
makes and what is made.
Other examples:
- The cat killed a rat.
- I broke the window.
- The cat dug a hole.

Valency two

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