Topic 7: participant role

1. Topic 7: participant role Introduction to Semantics

2. Thematic role • The semantic analysis of a simple sentence • Referring expressions • Predicate • John opened the door with the key. • Referring expressions • John, the door, the key • Predicate • open

3. Participant roles (1) • AGENT • The person who carries out the action • AFFECTED/PATIENT • The person/thing that receive the action. • The state of the person/thing could be changed. • INSTRUMENT • The tool used to perform the action

4. Analysis • A burglar ransacked my house. • AGENT: • PATIENT/AFFECTED: • INSTRUMENT: • My mother’s bowl was broken by the cat. • AGENT: • PATIENT/AFFECTED: • INSTRUMENT:

5. Participant roles (2) • LOCATION • Where the action takes place • BENEFICIARY • The person who receive the positive or negative results of the action, depending on the action in question

6. analysis • Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. • AGENT: • PATIENT/AFFECTED: • INSTRUMENT: • LOCATION: • BENEFICIARY: • John gave his girlfriend a rose. • AGENT: • PATIENT/AFFECTED: • INSTRUMENT: • LOCATION: • BENEFICIARY:

7. Participant roles (3) • EXPERIENCER • The person who cognitively perceive sensory or emotional experience without any control of the situation. • THEME • The person/thing that undergoes the action but does not change its state • Can be used interchangeably with PATIENT in some cases.

8. analysis • John saw a movie last night. • AGENT: • PATIENT/AFFECTED: • INSTRUMENT: • LOCATION: • BENEFICIARY: • EXPERIENCER: • THEME: • John saw Mary in Taipei. • AGENT: • PATIENT/AFFECTED: • INSTRUMENT: • LOCATION: • BENEFICIARY: • EXPERIENCER: • THEME:

9. Exercise: • Mary roasted the duck. • John smelled the burning dinner in the kitchen. • The terrorists destroyed the building with a bomb.