theta role
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English
Alternative forms
Noun
theta role (plural theta roles)
- (grammar, especially transformational grammar) Abbreviation of thematic role.
- 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 447:
- Such an analysis would provide a natural way of accounting for the fact that (inter alia) transitive Objects and their ergative Subject counterparts are assigned the same theta-roles, and hence are subject to the same Selection Restrictions. For example, in (160) below:
(160) (a) John might drown the kittens/his wife/??his goldfish/?!his frying-pan/!his birth
(160) (b) The kittens/his wife/??his goldfish/?!his frying-pan/!his birth might drown
the italicised transitive Object in (160) (a) has the same theta role ( = that of THEME or PATIENT (i.e. victim!) of drown) as the italicised ergative Subject in (160) (b), and accordingly is subject to the same Selection Restrictions.