Lejla Zejnilović, PhD

 Gina raised the car with a jack.

 Gina- the entity responsible for initiating and carrying
out the action
 Car- the entity acted upon and has its position changed
by the action
 Jack- the means by which Gina is able to cause the
action
 Participant roles/deep semantic cases/semantic
roles/thematic relations/thematic roles
 (Saeed 1997: 148)
 AGENT: the initiator of some action, capable of acting
with volition, e.g.
 David cooked the rashers.
 The fox jumped out of the ditch.
 PATIENT: the entity undergoing the effect of some
action, often undergoing some change in state, e.g.
 Enda cut back these bushes.
 The sun melted the ice.
 THEME: the entity which is moved by an action, or
whose location is described, e.g.
 Roberto passed the ball wide.
 The book is in the library.
 EXPERIENCER: the entity which is aware of the action
or state described by the predicate but which is not in
control of the action or state, e.g.
 Kevin felt ill.
 Mary saw the smoke.
 Lorcan heard the door shut.
 BENEFICIARY: the entity for whose benefit the action
was performed, e.g.
 Robert filled in the form for his grandmother.
 They baked me a cake.
 INSTRUMENT: the means by which an action is
performed or something comes about, e.g.
 She cleaned the wound with an antiseptic wipe.
 They signed the treaty with the same pen.
 LOCATION: the place in which something is situated or
takes place, e.g.
 The monster was hiding under the bed.
 The band played in a marquee.
 GOAL: the entity towards which something moves, either
literally or metaphorically, e.g.
 Mary handed her licence to the policeman.
 Pat told the joke to his friends.
 SOURCE: the entity from which something moves,
either literary or metaphorically, e.g.
 The plane came back from London.
 We got the idea from a French magazine.
 Gina raised the car with a jack.
↓ ↓ ↓
AGENT THEME INSTRUMENT
 PATIENT and THEME are different names for the
same roles (Radford: 1988).
 The term PATIENT is reserved for entities acted upon
and changed by the verb’s action, while THEME
describes an entity moved in literal or figurative space
by the action of the verb, but constitutionally
unchanged (Saeed: 1997).
 Fred shattered the rock.
 Fred threw the rock.
 PERCEPT: the entity which is perceived or
experienced, e.g.
 The general inspected the troops.
 Did you hear that thunder?
 That shark frightened the swimmers.
 RECIPIENT: a type of GOAL involved in actions
describing changes of possession, e.g.
 He sold me this wreck.
 He left his fortune to the church.
 How are thematic roles identified in grammar?
 There are typical matchings between participant roles and
grammatical relations.
 Ursula broke the ice with a pickaxe.
AGENT PATIENT INSTRUMENT
 The pickaxe broke the ice. INSTRUMENT subject
 The ice broke. PATIENT subject
 This cottage sleeps five adults. LOCATION subject
 The table seats eight. LOCATION subject
 The thief stole the wallet. AGENT subject
 Fred jumped out of the plane. AGENT subject
 I forgot the address. EXPERIENCER subject
 Your cat is hungry. EXPERIENCER subject
 She received a demand for unpaid tax. RECIPIENT subject
 The building suffered a direct hit. RECIPIENT subject
 The bowl cracked. PATIENT subject
 Joan fell off the yacht. THEME subject
 The arrow flew through the air. THEME subject
 The key opened the lock. INSTRUMENT subject
 The scalpel made a very clean cut. INSTRUMENT subject
(Saeed 1997: 154-156)
 Proponents of the notion of role envisage that in the
dictionary entry for each verb in the language there will be
a ‘role-frame’, indicating what roles must be, and what
roles may be, mentioned in connection with the verb. These
role frames are considered to be part of the semantic
representation of each verb.
 OPEN: (AGENT) AFFECTED (INSTRUMENT)
 John opened the door.
 The key opened the door.
 The door opened.
(Hurford et al. 2007: 253)
 Hurford, J. R. et al. (2007). Semantics: A

Coursebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

 Saeed, J. I. (1997). Semantics. UK: Wiley-Blackwell.