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Roles (Role and role-players (The role of Agent
Prototypical Agents:
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Roles
Role and role-players
The role of Agent
- Prototypical Agents:
human beings acting of their own volition, intiating an action, carrying it out using their own energy and producing an effect on something
e.g. Jim was happily chopping logs
Protolopycal Agents allow clauses to be continued by be at it and to contain adverbs.
e.g. Jim was chopping logs when Margaret left and was still at it when she got back
Jim was enthusiastically chopping logs
- Some Agents meet the general criteria but achieve some goal by exerting their will-power
e.g. Captain Oates died in order to save his comrades
Verb such as die does not denote actions but can be put into imperative, which is not a test for actions but is a test for volition.
- Some Agents do not have volition, do not initiate an action and do not expend energy. They produce an effect by virtue of being in a certain position in a certain place.
e.g. This arch supports the weight of the tower
The other example if it meets the above general criteria: What does this arch do? It supports the weight of the tower
- Some agents initiate an action but do no more because they merely give command to others to carry out the action
eg. The guard marched the prisoners round the yard
- Some agents is conceived of as using its own energy - a living creature, a maschine or a natural force.
e.g. The maschine is making the wrecked car
Agent based on grammatical criteria
The preposiion indicates a difference in a role, but all occurrences of the same preposition can be analyzed as signalling the same role.
The notion of being in the same place (Comotative)
e.g. Catriona opened the door with this key
The noun denotes an instrument is key
roles, grammar and meaning
The distinction between the central participants and the peripheral circumstances.between the core of a clause and the periphery of a clause
There are central participants such as Agent and Patient, and peripheral participants.
Why discuss roles?
the first part of the reply is that concepts such as Agent, Patient, Instrument. and used in accounts of the active and passive constructions of prepositions
The second part is that the concept of roles has never failed to elicit an immediate interested response from students
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Criteria for Roles
Roles are treated as assigned to nouns; since nouns are the heads of noun phrases, the property of being an Agent and Patient e.g. The baby chewed the biscuit
Instrument is a subtype of a more general role, instruments are signalled by with in English e.g. The window was broken with a hammer
Direct object NP is not a Patient but rather a Result. Moreover "result" noun phrases behave grammatically like Patient noun phrases (they function as direct object in active sentences and function as object in passive sentence) e.g. The hole was dug in the lawn by the dog
Theme is the role that is neutral with respect to Agent and Patient e.g. The vase stood on the table in the hall
Experiencer is the label reflecting the notion that describes a situation in which X has a psychological experience
Verbs like know, understand, believe, see, and bear are called stative verbs. Adjectives such as sorry, ashamed, joyful are often included as denoting psychological experiences