Semantic roles, semantics
- 2. An account of the number of arguments that a predicate has. Valency! 2
- 3. TABLE OF CONTENT Some changes in valency 03. Summary 04. Valency one 01. Valency two 02. 3
- 5. e.g. My brother snores The verb in this example is ‘snore’ and the subject is ‘my brother’. Many verbs like snore have subject but no object. So, they are intransitive verbs or one- argument predicates. Note: intransitive verb is defined as a verb that doesnot take a direct object. One-argument verbs Valencyone 5
- 6. Other one-argument verbs appear in the sentences below Group one The dog is sleeping. Larry laughed. The earth rotates (on its axis). Group two Grandfather died (last week). A volcano erupted. The cake fell. An actor performs an action without affecting any other entities. An event is a change in the condition of the entity named by the argument, and the entity named in the argument undergoes this change Valencyone 6 6
- 7. One-argument adjectives e.g. This soup is cold. Terry is impatient. Norah was rather reckless. The bottle is empty. • Adjectives like cold, empty, tall, heavy, blond and other adjectives are objective terms. • Impatient, careless, clever, thoughtful, pretty, tiresome and others involve subjective evaluations. Valencyone 1 7
- 8. The subject of each sentence is simply the topic or theme of what is said. The structure: Note: Theme is the topic of a predicate that does not express an action. Cont. Valencyone 1 8 Norah
- 9. Referring expression occurring after a form of be is a one-argument predicate. e.g., This man is a carpenter. Dextrose and fructose are sugars. Eddy Eckstein is the village idiot. Cora and Willis are the class leaders Note: The predicate in some way provides an identity for the entity named by the subject, as one or more of a kind (a carpenter, sugars) or as the only one or ones of the kind (the village idiot, the class leaders) Valencyone 9
- 11. Two-argument verb Other examples are need and use. We can’t simply say *Chris is making or *I need or *Ali used. A statement with make must contain a mention of who makes and what is made, and likewise with need and use. Valencytwo e.g., Chris is making an omelet. 11
- 12. Cont. Group one The cat killed a rat. I broke the window. Bert hit Harry. Group two The cat dug a hole. Chris is making an omelet. Picasso created a masterpiece. Group three Jennie crossed the street. Fiona entered the room. Simon climbed a tree. Valencytwo 12
- 13. Valencytwo First group Second group Third group 13
- 14. The following examples show how one entity affects or fails to affects another entity Group one The decision surprised us all. You’ re disturbing everybody. The comedian didn't impress the audience. Group two Oliver was envious of his brother. Oliver envied his brother. Angie was angry with Algernon. Valencytwo 14
- 15. The predicate expresses an affect, the first argument names the entity that affects—that has the affecting role—and the second argument names the entity that is affected. The components of second group have the same semantic roles but the order in which they occur in these English sentences is the reverse. First group Second group Valencytwo 15
- 16. Two-argument adjective e.g, I’m afraid of that dog. We were not aware of the accident. Aren’t you curious about...? Valencytwo 16
- 17. Linking predicate e.g, Sheila is like her mother. This present is for you. Tom is with Ann. The book is about fossils. Note, associate tells the status or identity of another argument. Valencytwo 17
- 18. Cont. 1. A relational predicate may indicate the relation of a theme and its associate in space. 2. Some linking predicates locate events in time. Valencytwo 18
- 19. Cont. 3. Terms that express kinship and other social relations are linking predicates. Valencytwo 19
- 20. Note The term associate is intended in a very general way. It includes measurements of size, weight, value, and the like. Valencytwo 20
- 21. Some changes in valency e.g., Agnes wrote her mother a letter. It can be: Agnes wrote a letter. Agnes wrote (to) her mother. Agnes wrote. The sentence is less informative when it has fewer arguments, but it is still a legitimate sentence and the meaning of write does not change. Some predicates can be used in a sentence that has two arguments and in another sentence that has only one argument, as with Tom broke the window and The window broke. 21
- 22. Cont. e.g.,The car needs a new battery. e.g., a. Maureen bathed the baby (in the tube). b. Maureen bathed (in the tube). Certain verbs, need, use, want and others, must have two arguments. Certain predicates, like bathe, are reflexive, self-directed, if they occur without an object. For more examples go to page 79 in the book. 22
- 23. A sentence is defined as a composite of inflection and proposition A proposition consists of a subject and a predicate. Inflection includes agreement and tense; agreement is the formal bond between subject and predicate Summary 23
- 24. Summary A proposition consists of a predicate and varying numbers of arguments or referring expressions. The number of arguments that accompany a particular predicate is called its valency The meaning of a predicate is partly determined by the valency and by the semantic roles that these arguments have. 24
- 26. Thank you Kreidler, C. W. (1998). Introducing English semantics. Psychology Press.