 | This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (February 2016) |
| Grammatical features |
|---|
In linguistics, the grammatical patient, also called the target or undergoer, is a semantic role representing the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out,[1] or the thematic relation such a participant has with an action.
Sometimes, theme and patient are used to mean the same thing.[2] When used to mean different things, patient describes a receiver that changes state ("I crushed the car") and theme describes something that does not change state ("I have the car").[3] By that definition, stative verbs act on themes, and dynamic verbs act on patients.
- ^ Memidex.com[permanent dead link] Retrieved 2012-07-24.
- ^ William O' Grady; Michael Dobrovolsky; Mark Aronoff (1997). Contemporary Linguistics. ISBN 0-312-13749-4. - uses "theme" to mean a recipient of an action that changes state, p. 265-66
- ^ A similar distinction is made here: 1.3.2 Predicates and arguments in Basic English Syntax with Exercises (ISBN 9639704709), see also the pop-up glossary for the terms in question