Actors and Theta Roles

Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient

Peter Dinlage in The Station Agent

Erik Estrada in The Final Goal

Jack Donner in The Instrument

In Linguistics, referring to the argument structure of a verb is a method for describing the number and type of arguments a particular verb requires.

For example; the verb put, syntactically requires three arguments: a subject, an object and an indirect object. Semantically, put requires that the subject be animate because an inanimate entity is not capable of volition.

John put the book on the table.

The semantic requirements for the arguments of a verb are identified by assigning a certain number and type of theta role to verbs. All verbs have selectional restrictions encoded that supply the semantic relations between a verb and its arguments.

Another example is the verb walk. Walk only requires one argument, a subject, and again the subject must be animate.

John walked.

Following is a list of some of the more common theta roles with credit to UNC.

AGENT
• argument who performs the action or brings about the state of affairs
• an agent is conscious, sentient, animate
• volition or purpose involved in the action being done
• the agent is the prototypical subject (but does not need to appear as a subject!)

e.g. Napoleon conquered much of Europe.
The cake was baked by my mother.
The cat peed all over the house.

INSTRUMENT
• argument involved in the action (but not the agent)
• can be used by an agent
• non-purposeful, non-volitional by itself

e.g. This key opens the office door.
The thieves used a pick-axe to get inside.
Robin ate the cereal with a spoon.

CAUSE
• argument involved in the action/in bringing about the state of affairs (but not the agent)
• cannot be used by an agent
• non-purposeful, non-volitional by itself
e.g. An epidemic killed most of the villagers.
London was devastated by the fire of 1666.
The Great Depression put thousands of Americans in poverty.

EXPERIENCER
• argument that undergoes a sensory, cognitive, or emotional experience
• must be animate/sentient
e.g. Teresa had never seen the ocean before.
Many people fear snakes.
His singing struck her as singularly terrible.

RECIPIENT
• arguments that receive something (good or bad) in a situation
e.g. They gave all the employees a raise.
I paid my landlord the rent.
He spared me his usual sob story.

THEME
• thing acted upon, moved, or otherwise affected by a situation, OR
• an argument which has a property being referred to
• prototypical direct object (but doesn’t have to be a direct object!)
• the “catch-all” (trashcan) of theta-roles
e.g. Napoleon conquered much of Europe.
Pat is very polite.
We put the books on the shelf.
London was devastated by the fire of 1666.

SOURCE
• the starting point for a movement
• may also indicate where a change (etc.) starts from
e.g. The package arrived from Moscow this morning.
I biked from Carrboro to Durham last night.
Robin frightened me.

GOAL
• the end point for a physical movement
• may also indicate the end result of a change in possession or identity
e.g. Many actors move to New York.
The magician changed the rabbit into a penguin.
John gave the cake to Mary.

LOCATION
• the place where an action occurred
e.g. We put the books on the shelf.
Maria sent a package to France.
Lots of good bands always come to Cat’s Cradle.

Returning to the example sentence John put the book on the table, the theta roles are as follows:

John (subject) = agent

the book (direct object) = theme

the table (indeirect object) = location

*It should be noted that some linguists use the terms thematic relations and theta roles interchangeably.

Picture credits to IMDb

Books That Lay Eggs

Someone (author, editor, publisher, or all of the above) really laid an egg with the title of this book.

The verb lay is a transitive verb. Transitive verbs require two arguments: a subject and a direct object. Which leaves me wondering, what did the dead lay?

And more importantly, how?

In addition to requiring a particular number of arguments, different verb types also maintain different semantic restrictions.

In linguistics, these restrictions are monitored by what are known as theta roles (which equate to the number of arguments required by the verb). Every verb is encoded with a minimum of one theta role and a maximum of three. Theta roles are filled by words or phrases that carry certain thematic relations. Thematic relations being the semantic relation between an argument and its predicate (verb).

The verb lay mandatorily has two theta roles to fill, which are most commonly filled by words or phrases with the thematic relations agent and theme. An agent is an initiator or doer of an action. A theme is an entity that undergoes an action, is experienced or is perceived.

By the thematic role definition, the verb lay requires an animate subject because an inanimate subject cannot initiate an action. So I pose the question again, how can the dead lay? Dead are inanimate by definition; they are not capable of initiating an action.

If, by any chance, the title's use of lay is as the past tense of the verb lie it still doesn't jibe semantically...unless, of course, you believe in the ability of the dead to rise.

Click here for more on the distinction between "lay vs. lie".