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Unit 20

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14 views11 pages

Unit 20

Uploaded by

weewoomeemoo1
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Linguistic Theories

4th year
Second Term

Dr. Rania Galal


Faculty of Women
Ain Shams University
James R. Hurford
Brendan Heasley
Michael B. Smith
2007
Unit 20
Participant Roles
 The basic semantic ingredients of a common type of simple
sentence are (1) a predicate, and (2) a number of referring
expressions.

 The referring expressions correspond to actual things or


persons in the world.

 The function of the predicate is to describe the specific


relationship between the things, persons referred to, i.e., to
describe how things or people participate in the particular
situation described.
Participant Roles

Agent Theme

Experiencer
Affected Beneficiary

Instrument Location
Participant Roles

The person who deliberately carried out the


Agent action.
Example: John opened the door with the Key.

Affected The thing (not usually a person, although it may


be) upon which the action is carried out.

Example: John opened the door with the Key.


Participant Roles

The thing by means of which the action is


Instrument carried out.

Example: John opened the door with the Key.

The role of location is played by any expression


Location referring to the place where the action
described by a sentence takes place.

Example: It is windy in Edinburgh.


Participant Roles

Beneficiary The person for whose benefit the action


described by a sentence takes place.

Example: John gave Bill a book.

The person who is mentally aware of, perceives,


Experiencer or experiences the action or state described by
the sentence.

Example: The children heard the loud noise.


Participant Roles

The thing or person whose location is described,


Theme or a thing or person that is perceived by an
experiencer.

Examples: My computer is sitting on that desk.


Jack saw a play last week.
The children heard the loud noise.
Role-Frame

 It is important to show how information about participant roles can


be included in the dictionary.

 There will be a “role-frame”, indicating what roles must be, and what
roles may be, mentioned in connection with the verb.

Example: OPEN: (Agent) Affected (Instrument)

John opened the door.


The key opened the door.
The door opened.
Thank You

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