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?), or “patient” (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.

In these two sentences, 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.

Overview of thematic role words

Toaq word	Definition	Example
chou	___ is an event with ___ as its instrument.	chòu sa tỏemy “using a knife”
nhe	___ is an event with ___ as its extent.	Lỏq náo nhè sáqheı kẻıcıu, “the water is 30°C hot”
Words below this line are unofficial
sıy	___ is an event with ___ as its starting point, source, origin.	Jảra nháo sìy búe, “they run from the house”
fay	___ is an event with ___ as its end point, direction, goal.	Jảra nháo fày búe, “they run toward the house”
puoq	___ is an event with ___ as its purpose.	pùoq jâı súq, “so that you may be happy”
gekyı	___ is an event with ___ as its stimulus.	Ảchu hó gèkyı póıbā, “She sneezes because of/from the grass”
juqkyı	… recipient/benefactor	Sủaq jí jùqkyı súq, “I sing for you”
toıkyı	… agent	Usually automatically assigned via syntactic slots.
tekyı	… patient	Usually automatically assigned via syntactic slots.
taqkyı	… agent + patient	Usually automatically assigned via syntactic slots.
lıekyı	… experiencer