Sentence semantics: participants

Sentence semantics: participants

1. Thematic roles

   • Agent
   • Patient
   • Theme
   • Experience
   • Beneficiry
   • Instrument
   • Location
   • Source

2. General Problem

   • Dowty proposes a solution where theta-roles are not semantic primitives but are defined in terms of entailments of the predicate.

3. Motivation of identifying Thematic Roles

   • Verbs have requirements for their arguments.

4. Middle Voice

   • There are languages that display this active/passive voice contrast, but some others have a three-way distinction between active, passive and middle voice.