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Semantic Roles Practice

The document discusses semantic roles and how they label the function of participants in events and sentences. It provides examples of identifying semantic roles such as agents, patients, instruments, locations, beneficiaries, paths, sources, goals, experiencers and themes. There are also examples of formulating role-frames for dictionary entries based on verbs and example sentences.

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Pierina Castro
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34 views10 pages

Semantic Roles Practice

The document discusses semantic roles and how they label the function of participants in events and sentences. It provides examples of identifying semantic roles such as agents, patients, instruments, locations, beneficiaries, paths, sources, goals, experiencers and themes. There are also examples of formulating role-frames for dictionary entries based on verbs and example sentences.

Uploaded by

Pierina Castro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Semantics and Pragmatics

Semantic Roles
Semantic roles
They label the role (function) of the participants
( referring expressions) in events (sentences). We use
them to identify common semantic properties of the
participants in events. They are independent of
grammatical roles.
Practice
Identify the Agents in the following sentences by
circling them.
(a) A burglar ransacked my house.
(b) My mother’s Imari bowl was broken by a thief.
Identify the patients in the following:
(c) Muriel dealt the cards carefully to each player.
(d) The tree was felled by a single blow from Paul’s
axe.
Identify the Instruments in the following:
(e) Seymour sliced the salami with a knife.
(f) Amish used a screwdriver to open the tin.
Practice
Identify the following semantic roles: Agent, patient
and Instrument.
Floyd smashed the glass with the hammer.
The hammer smashed the glass.
The glass smashed.
Crippen dissolved the body with the acid.
The acid dissolved the body.
Practice
- Identify the Locations in the following sentences by
circling them:
(a) It is windy in Edinburgh.
(b) I’m meeting Dick at Waverley Station.
(c) There are three bikes on your porch.
- Identify the Beneficiaries in the following examples:
(a) Ruth knitted Bryan a sweater.
(b) Alan was sent a special offer from the Reader’s
Digest.
(c) Glenn bought a micro-computer for his son.
Practice
- Identify the location, path, source and goal in the
following sentences by circling them:
(a) The baby crawled across the room.
(b) Throw this rubbish into the rubbish bin.
©Maria comes from Australia.
(d) I told the teacher my idea.
(e) Eddy took money from my purse.
(f) I felt the chills through my body.
Practice
- Identify the experiencer and theme roles in the
following sentences by circling them:
- Napoleon saw Josephine
- Jhon loves video games.
- Jane saw a movie last night.
- Janice became sick when she heard the news.
- The thunder was heard by everyone.
- My computer is on that desk.
- Jack saw a play last week.
- Many people fear snakes
Jhon openened the door with the keys.
The keys opened the door.
The door opened.

LOGICAL FORMULA
AUGMENTED LOGICAL FORMULA
Vielka got a job.
She cut her finger in the garden.

LOGICAL FORMULA
AUGMENTED LOGICAL FORMULA
Practice 5
- Listed below are a number of verbs, with some example sentences containing them.
On the basis of what occurs in all of the example sentences, and what only occurs
in some of them, formulate a role-frame for the dictionary entry of each verb.

 (1) BLOW UP: ______________ - The ball was chased.


-Vacek blew up the tank with a hand  (3) GIVE: ____________
grenade. - John gave Mary a book.
- The hand grenade blew up the tank . - Mary was given a book.
-The tank blew up. - A book was given to Mary.
 (2) CHASE: ___________  (4) PUT: .____________
- John chased the ball to the bottom of
-Lucy put a log on the fire with the
the hill. tongs.
- The ball was chased to the bottom -
Lucy put a log on the fire
of the hill - A log was put on the fire

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