Thematic Roles and Predicates

Start with participants

Begin with a map on sentence participants. The page lists several resources called Sentence Semantics 2: Participants. Their branches introduce thematic roles such as agent, patient, theme, beneficiary, instrument, location, goal and source.

One map describes an agent as the initiator of an action who can act with volition. It describes a patient as the entity affected by an action. Start by comparing those roles, then use the other branches to extend your review. The maps have similar titles, so open them to see how each one presents the material.

Connect roles and situations

The Participants map includes examples alongside its descriptions of agent and patient. Use those examples after looking at the role names: identify the participant in each sentence, then check the branch to see how the map labels it.

For another view, look at Sentence Semantics: Participants. Its branches include thematic roles, omitted roles and subject hierarchy. You can compare its role list with the first map and note which terms you want to study again.

Next, open Verbs and situations. It includes a branch on causatives and describes a situation brought about by what the subject noun phrase refers to. This gives you another way to look at the relationship between a sentence and a situation.

Continue through Semantics

Thematic Roles and Predicates is a section of the Semantics unit in Linguistics and philology. Alongside the participants maps, this page lists maps called Predicates and arguments and Arguments, predicators and predicates. These offer starting points for continuing within the section.

There are no quizzes listed on this page. Instead, use a map to check yourself: cover a branch, recall its role or description, and then uncover it. Finish by choosing another map to compare with your notes.