Thematic relation

For thematic relations at the syntax-semantics interface, see theta role.
Grammatical features
Related to nouns
Related to verbs
General features
Syntax relationships
Semantics
Phenomena

In certain theories of linguistics, thematic relations, also known as semantic roles, are the various roles that a noun phrase may play with respect to the action or state described by a governing verb, commonly the sentence's main verb. For example, in the sentence "Susan ate an apple", Susan is the doer of the eating, so she is an agent;[1] an apple is the item that is eaten, so it is a patient.

Since their introduction in the mid-1960s by Jeffrey Gruber and Charles Fillmore,[2][3] semantic roles have been a core linguistic concept and ground of debate between linguist approaches, because of their potential in explaining the relationship between syntax and semantics (also known as the syntax-semantics interface),[3] that is how meaning affects the surface syntactic codification of language. The notion of semantic roles play a central role especially in functionalist and language-comparative (typological) theories of language and grammar.

While most modern linguistic theories make reference to such relations in one form or another, the general term, as well as the terms for specific relations, varies: "participant role", "semantic role", and "deep case" have also been employed with similar sense.

  1. ^ Dahl, Östen. "Lectures on linguistic complexity" (PDF). UNIVERSITY of TARTU, Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-05-19. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference VanValin2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Bornkessel2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).