Thematic Roles

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Thematic Roles

• Sara sang the song.
• Agent
• Kim drank a coffee.
• Patient
• Sally gave Tom her pullover.
• ?Theme

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Thematic Roles

• Susi gave her the bag.
• She likes candles.
• ? Experiencer
• They protected their heads with helmets.
• Instrument
• Megan prepared lunch for her grandmother.
• Beneficiary

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Thematic Roles

• He donated 2000 to the orphanage.
• ? Recipient
• The computer is on the table.
• Location
• They went to the cinema.
• She handed the paper to her professor.
• ?Goal

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Thematic Roles
She received a letter from her boyfriend. ? Source
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Linking

• Definition The term linking refers to the
  relationship between thematic roles and
  grammatical relations.

Agent Recipient Theme
John gave Tom the bottle.
Subject indirect object direct object
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The theta hierachy

• In an unmarked declarative sentence, the highest
  ranked thematic role will be subject.
• Agent gt instrument / experiencer gt patient /
  theme gt source / goal / location

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Agens-Gefälle

• Intransitive verbs
• unergative verbs take an agent subject
• -unaccusative verbs take a patient subject
• A sentence can only be passivised if there is a
  difference between subject and object on the
  theta-hierachy.
• Peter schreibt Kurzgeschichten.
• Kurzgeschichten werden von Peter geschrieben.

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Linking
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Passive transformation

• 1) Demotion of the subject to an adjunct
  introduced by by / von
• 2) Promotion of the object (and adverbial NP) to
  subject status
• 3) Introduction of an auxiliary verb
• English be or get / German (mostly) werden.
  (German also knows more marginal auxiliaries
  bekommen, sein, bleiben, gehören.)
• e.g. The car ran over a dog. gt A dog was/got run
  over by the car.
• Man verlieh dem Soldaten einen Orden.
• gt Dem Soldaten wurde ein Orden
  verliehen.
• (alternatively gt Der Soldat bekam
  einen Orden verliehen.)

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• Semantic prerequisite for the passive
• a patient!
• That means, the subject must have been affected
  by the relevant event,
• or in other terms
• subject and object must have different levels on
  the theta-hierarchy (Agensgefälle).

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• In German, a formal difference is made between
• Vorgangspassiv Er wurde (vom Blitz) getroffen.
• and
• Zustandspassiv Er war (wie vom Blitz) getroffen.

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• Only English allows for passivization of
  imperatives
• e.g. Dont get bitten by snakes!
• (German Werde nicht von Schlangen gebissen!
• gt Lass dich nicht von Schlangen beißen!)

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• Only German allows for passivization of
  intransitives
• e.g. In den Fluren wird nicht gerannt! (subjectl
  ess)
• (English Running is not allowed in the
  corridors.)

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• German allows for dative case in subject
  position
• e.g. Ihm wurde gedankt.
• (No oblique case in English
• Him was thanked. gt He was thanked.)

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• This is due to the fact that in German, dative
  case is not restricted to the indirect object in
  ditransitives, but also occurs with certain
  verbs
• e.g. Ihm wird vertraut.
• Ihr wird gratuliert.
• Ihnen wird geglaubt.

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