Thematic role
A thematic role or semantic role is a way in which an object can relate to an event.
Some examples of thematic roles are:
- “agent”: who is willfully causing this event?
- “instrument”: what is used to carry out this event?
- “patient”: who or what is affected/changed by this event?
Syntactic and thematic roles
Thematic roles exist in contrast to syntactic roles, like “subject” or “direct object”: these describe a way in which something participates in a verb at the syntax level.
In Toaq, syntactic roles are the ones already represented by the “blanks” in verb definitions:
choıdea: ___ stabs ___.
Whereas thematic roles are represented using verbs that relate an event to an object, generally used as prepositions ():
chou: ___ is an event with ___ as its instrument.
An example
In the two sentences below, the syntactic subject and object are exchanged, but the thematic roles stay the same: Brutus, the agent, is causing change, while Caesar, the patient, suffers this change.
Sentence | Syntactic roles | Thematic roles | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Subject | Object | Agent | Patient | |
(1) Chỏıdea mí Bủtusy mí Kảısary da. Brutus stabs Caesar. |
Brutus | Caesar | Brutus | Caesar |
(2) Mủ chỏıdea mí Kảısary mí Bủtusy da. Caesar is-stabbed-by Brutus. |
Caesar | Brutus | Brutus | Caesar |
Note that the assignment of Agent and Patient roles to Brutus and Caesar happens “automatically” according to the semantics of choıdea. To stab is for an agent to stab a patient.
We can further dress the event up with an “instrument” using a thematic role word:
(3) Chỏıdea mí Bủtusy mí Kảısary chòu sa tỏemy da.
(4) Mủ chỏıdea mí Kảısary mí Bủtusy chòu sa tỏemy da.
We say that the stabbing-event, or the being-stabbed-event, “happens using” a knife.
Table of thematic role words
Each of these has a definition like: “___ is an event with ___ as its (Role).”
Toaq word | Role | Example |
---|---|---|
chou | Instrument | chòu sa tỏemy, “using a knife” |
nhe | Extent | lỏq náo nhè néıheı kẻıcıu, “the water is 90°C hot” |
Words below this line are unofficial | ||
sıy | Starting point, source, origin | jảra nháo sìy búe, “they run from the house” |
fay | End point, direction, goal | jảra nháo fày búe, “they run toward the house” |
puoq | Purpose | pùoq jâı súq, “so that you may be happy” |
gekyı[1] | Stimulus | ảchu jí gèkyı hóegıo, “I sneeze from the sunlight” |
juqkyı | Recipient, benefactor | sủaq jí jùqkyı súq, “I sing for you” |
toıkyı | Agent | pỏaq núoqmy tòıkyı jí, “the mirror shatters by my doing” |
tekyı | Patient | rủqshua tètyı jí, “it rains on (affecting, i.e. wetting) me” |
taqkyı | Agent + patient (affecting self) | |
lıekyı | Experiencer |
“Agent” and “patient” roles are usually baked into a transitive verb, so translating toıkyı and tekyı can be a bit tricky or ambiguous.
- ↑ kyı is an invalid syllable, marking these words as somewhat more experimental than the others.