Transcript Participant roles and linking

Participant Roles and how they
are Expressed Grammatically
Linguistics 5430
Spring 2007
What does a Verb Need?
• An early approach based upon grammatical
frames, which fails to deal with semantics.
• An alternative approach based on the
relationship between semantic roles and
grammatical roles.
• Linking theory.
• A recent attempt to extend linking theory to
deal with flexibility in verb meanings.
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Subcategorization
• Chomsky (1965) proposed to divide up all
verbs into subcategories based on their
grammatical frames.
• put _NP PP (put the shoes under the desk)
• eat _(NP) (ate lunch, ate at noon)
• give _NP PP (give the account to Pat)
_NP NP (give Pat the account)
• contribute _(NP) (PP) (contribute some
money; contribute to the Red Cross)
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What about Semantics?
• Alternations: The form of the frame can be
invariable while its content changes.
• Examples involving the frame V NP PP:
Moe loaded the truck with lobsters.
Moe loaded the lobsters into the truck.
She drained the cash from the account.
She drained the account of cash.
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What about Semantics?
• The form of the frame might vary,while its
content stays the same.
She asked me what time it was.
She asked me the time.
I can’t believe how much noise they make.
I can’t believe the noise they make.
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What about Semantics?
• A single NP in a verb’s grammatical frame
may express several different types of roles:
She risked
his hostility
a swim in the ocean
her life
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A New Theory: Semantic Frames
• Words highlight some parts of a scene and
background others.
Figure 1. Hypotenuse.
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Semantic Frames
• Verbs denote aspects of scenes.
• Scenes have participants.
• Verbs highlight some participants in a scene
and background others.
• Converses: buy/sell; own/belong to;
lend/borrow.
• How exactly do converses work?
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Different Participants are
Foregrounded by each Verb
• What makes us say that a given participant
is foregrounded?
 It is necessarily expressed in the sentence.
*She put the peanut butter.
 It is expressed by the core grammatical
roles: subject and object.
She filled the bathtub. She poured the gin.
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Examples of Foregrounding: The
Commercial Event Scenario
• There are two levels at which we can
describe participant roles:
Frame-specific roles.
Schematic roles.
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Examples of Foregrounding: The
Commercial Event Scenario
• The Commercial Event Scenario
buyer
seller
goods
currency
• The Transfer (or Removal) Scenario
agent
goal/recipient
theme
source
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The Alignment of Roles
from the Two Levels
buy buyer
seller
currency goods
agent
sell buyer
goal
pay buyer
source
seller
agent
seller
theme
currency goods
theme
currency goods
goal
theme
agent
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Another Two Levels: Action and
Thematic Tiers (6.3)
• When we are identifying thematic roles, there are levels at
which we can do that:
– The thematic tier (movement and location)
– The action tier (causation and change of state)
• Try to invent a sentence in which an argument is
both:
– Agent and goal
– Patient and theme
– Agent and theme
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From Semantic Roles to
Grammatical Roles
• Linking theory proposes two proto-roles:
• Proto-agent: has volition, is an energy
source, moves.
• Proto-patient: acted upon, undergoes
change of state.
• An intransitive clause may have either an
proto-patient or a proto-agent, but not both.
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Semantic Role Hierarchy
• Proto-agent will be linked to the subject role
when it is present.
• Proto-patient will be linked to the object role
when it is present.
agent
instrument
Proto-agent
location
theme
Proto-patient
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How does Linking Work?
• Think about these sentences:
Sue broke our window (with a rock).
A rock broke our window.
Our window broke.
*A rock broke our window by Sue.
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Exceptional Linkings
• Which sentence in each pair violates the
predictions of the semantic-role hierarchy?
She loaded lobsters onto the truck.
She loaded the truck with lobsters.
Harry hit the wall with a hammer.
Harry hit the hammer against the wall.
That couch is crawling with fleas.
Fleas are crawling on that couch.
She gave the account to Pat.
She gave Pat the account.
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Linking Alternations in Two
Other Languages
• Latin
Populus
Ciceroni
immortalitatem
People:NOM
Cicero:DAT
immortality:ACC
‘The people gave immortality to Cicero.’
donavit.
gave:3pl
Populus
Ciceronem
immortalitate
donavit.
People:NOM
Cicero:ACC
immortality:ABL gave:3pl
‘The people endowed Cicero with immortality.’
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Latin Linking: Passive
• Two possibilities for passive in Latin
Immortalitas
est
donatus
Ciceroni
Immortality:NOM is
given:masc:sg Cicero: DAT
ab populo.
by people:ABL
‘Immortality was given to Cicero by the people.’
Cicero
est
donatus
immortalitate
Cicero:NOM
is
given:masc:sg immortality:ABL
ab populo.
by people:ABL
‘Cicero was endowed with immortality by the people.’
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German Linking
• Active
Wir befüllten die Flaschen mit Bier.
‘We filled the bottles with beer.’
Wir füllten Bier in die Flaschen.
‘We filled (poured) beer into the bottles.’
• Two possibilities for passive
Bier wurde in die Flaschen gefüllt.
‘Beer was filled into the bottles.’
Die Flaschen wurden mit bier befüllt.
‘The bottles were filled with beer.’
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Recent Inquiries into the
Flexibility of Verb Meaning
• Does the number of semantic roles assigned
by a given verb always remain the same?
• Can speakers use constructions to add
semantic roles to the verb?
• We can answer these questions by looking
at naturally occurring language data.
• In many genres, we find nonce uses of
words.
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More Examples of Flexible
Verb Meanings
The Presentational Construction
• On the ground lay a shoe.
• Near the clubhouse sparkles the community pool.
The Caused Motion construction
• She pushed the glass off the counter.
• A gruff ‘police monk’ barked them back to work.
The Directed Motion construction
• She walked through the gate.
• She squirmed through the fence posts.
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Even more Examples of
Flexibility in Verb Meanings
The Ditransitive construction
• I gave them a gift.
• We adopted her a sister.
• I hailed them a cab.
The Resultative construction
• I made the table less wobbly.
• They cried their eyes red.
• I ate myself sick.
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Goldberg’s Construction-Based
Proposal
• Linking patterns exist independently of
verbs and have meanings similar to those of
verbs (transfer, causation)
• The patterns can modify verb meanings by
adding semantic roles.
• These patterns can make verbs from nouns:
I spread the bread with butter.
I buttered the bread.
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