Semantic roles are concerned with the description of linguistic categories in terms of different conceptual notions such as agent, patient, theme, experiencer, etc. Semantic roles discuss the role a participant has in the sentence with the main verb. There are nine constituents of semantic roles.
1.
Agent:
The
participant which the verb characterizes as performing an action or causing
something. For instance,
- He hit the ball.
- He baked the cake.
“He”
in both examples is an “agent”.
1.
Patient:
The
participant which the verb characterizes as something happening to it or it is
affected by something. For instance,
- He
hit the ball.
- He
baked the cake.
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Both
‘ball’ and ‘cake’ are the entities that are being affected by the actions such
as a hit and ‘baked’ respectively.
1.
Experiencer:
The
participant which the verb characterizes as being aware of something. For
instance,
- Amna felt uncomfortable.
- She smelled the flowers.
Both
‘Amna’ and ‘she’ are the entities that are aware of some abstract feeling so they
are the experiencer.
1.
Theme:
The
participant which the verb characterizes as being in a certain position or
condition or having a change in its position or condition. For instance,
- Ali came from Lahore.
- Fatima lives in Islamabad.
The
participant ‘Ali’ was characterized by having a change in his position whereas
the participant ‘Fatima’ was in a certain position so, both are themes.
1.
Benefactive:
The
entity or the participant which the verb characterizes as benefitting from the
action that is taking place is called benefactive. For instance,
- Ali
gave the puppy the ball.
- Fatima
baked a cake for her children.
Both
the puppy’ and ‘her children are benefiting from the action that is taking
place so they are called benefactive.
1.
Source:
The
participant from which motion proceeds. For instance,
- They moved
from Lahore to Islamabad.
- The vacuum
cleaner scared
the children.
Both
‘Lahore’ and ‘the vacuum cleaner’s are the source from which motion
proceeds.
1.
Goal:
The
participant to which motion proceeds. For instance,
- They moved
from Lahore to Islamabad.
- The fly
flew into the soup.
Both
‘Islamabad’ and ‘soups were the goal of the action taking place.
1.
Location:
The
participant which the verb characterizes as expressing the location of an
action. For instance,
- She worked
in a factory.
- She found
her shoes from the closet.
Both
‘a factory’s and ‘the closer’s are expressing the location where am action took
place so, they are the location.
1.
Instrument:
The
participant through which an action takes place is called an instrument. For
instance,
- Ali hit the
ball with a bat.
- She dried
her hair with a towel.
Both
‘a bat’ and ‘a towel’ were the instruments through which an action took
place.
Classification
of Verbs:
The
semantic role helps to classify verbs into refining-grained groups. As
justified from the constituents of semantic roles, the verb or the predicate
determines the semantic roles of the participants. Similarly, the semantic role
also helps the classification of the verb. For instance, the action verb is
used to determine the semantic roles of agent and patient.
- Ali hit the
ball.
Here
“hit” is an action verb that determines the action taking place in the
sentence.
On
the contrary, in determining an experiencer, verbs such as “smelled”, “felt”
etc are used which do not refer to direct action but highlight a certain
feeling. For instance,
- Amna felt uncomfortable.
- She smelled the
flowers.
Similarly,
to determine the theme, verbs such as “came”, “came” and lives” are used.
- Ali comes from
Lahore.
- Fatima lives in
Islamabad.
In short, the predicate of the verb not only determines the semantic roles but the semantic roles also help to classify verbs into more refined-grained groups.
