Thread: Semantic Roles (request for help)

Hey there! Yesterday we were delivering a special class on Charles Fillmore and we had to explain his Case Grammar theory together with Semantic Roles (Agent, Object, Benefactor, Location, Instrument). After explaining "Location" (the semantic role that identifies the location or spatial orientation of a state or action) an example was given to illustrate this concept. The example was "The paper is in the folder". Thus, "in the folder" would have the semantic value of Location. The question is: which value would you say that "The paper" has in this sentence? Would you say that it is the "Agent"? I wouldn't because "The paper" here is not the "doer" of the action. I mean, is "the paper" actually doing the action of being "in the folder"? I think I'm sort of messed up here Anyway, any help, comment or suggestion from you is always welcome. Thanks in advance.

Natalia.

I never read too much on Case Grammar, unfortunately, but wouldn't it fall in the category of "Object" in this case? I agree with you that Agent just doesn't work there.

I would concider The paper as the subject in your sentence.

Thanks for you replies.
Well, yes, actually "The paper" is the subject of the sentence, but that is syntactically speaking. What I want to know is which semantic value "The paper" has in that sentence.

I think that "The paper" may be the Patient. I've been reading some information these days and I came across with this:
"Patient is the semantic role of an entity that is not the agent but is directly involved in or affected by the happening denoted by the verb in the clause".

Maybe that's it, what do you think?

Hi Natalia! This is an interesting topic!

Fillmore adds some examples of syntactic problems in which case analysis is useful. Among these are parallel sentences with "have" and "be":

Many toys (O) are (V) in the box (L)


The box (L) has (V) many books (O) in it (L-copy)


These two parallel sentences have the same case frame but different choice of subject.

From: Case gramma Theory - Walter A. Cook - page 7
http://books.google.com.ar/books?id=...&cad=0#PPP1,M1

Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot mem! You've really been of great help. Thank you so much for the link of the book. That was exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks once again to all of you.

Hugs!

Natalia.