chapter 6 sentence semantics 2: participants

chapter 6 sentence semantics 2: participants

1. thematic roles

   • patient
     • the entity undergoing the effect of some action, often undergoing some change in state
   • theme
     • The entity which is moved by an action, or whose location is described
   • beneficiary
     • the entity for whose benefit the action was performed
   • instrument
     • the means bye which an action is performed or something comes about
   • location
     • The place in which something moves
   • goal
     • The entity towards which something moves, either place in which something moves, literally as in the examples
   • source
     • The entity towards which something moves, either place in which something moves, literally as in the examples
   • agent
     • the initiator of some action, capable of acting with volition

2. impersonal passive is used to describe passives of intransitive verbs

3. Middle voice verb forms of this neuter type, where the subject undergoes a process over which it has no control