tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 26 10:26:32 2004

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core semantic case roles: agent, patient, focus

MorphemeAddict ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol taghwI']

Here are the definitions that I use of the three primary semantic case roles 
- agent, patient, and focus:  
(http://www.eskimo.com/~ram/lexical_semantics.html)
"The three major case roles that are capable of being included within the 
valency of a verb are: 

     agent - the entity responsible for the event described by the verb

     patient - the entity which experiences the state or change of state
              described by the verb

     focus - the entity which acts as the referent of a relationship
            with the patient

Thus, the agent is responsible for the event, the patient experiences the 
event, and the focus provides the referent for the state or change of state 
indicated by the event."

Different verbs have different argument structures.  The subject of "hit" is 
an agent and its object is the patient, but the subject of "see" is a patient 
and its object is a focus.  "To inform (about)" has all three:  In "He 
informed us about the meeting", the agent is "he", the patient is "us", and the focus 
is "the meeting".

These semantic roles can also be applied to Klingon, although syntactically 
there is no more distinction in these roles in Klingon than there is in 
English.  The semantic roles are determined by the meaning of the verb.

Thus the subject of "Doq" is a patient.  The subject of "HoH" is an agent, 
and the object is a patient.  "ja'" takes an agent and a patient (the listener). 
 "jatlh" takes an agent and a focus (the utterance).  English "tell" takes 
all three roles.  When the suffix "-moH" is added to verbs whose subject is a 
patient, the subject of the new verb is the agent and the object is the patient. 
 
The subject of some verbs is both agent AND patient, an agent-patient.  Here 
are some examples:

"    The boy imitated the teacher.
    The lady looked at the house.  {bej} - watch
        (Think of "to look at" as a single complex verb.)
    The men obeyed the rules.  {lob - obey}
    The girls listened to the music.  {'Ij} - listen [only if {'Ij} takes an 
object.]
        (Think of "to listen to" as a single complex verb.)
    The children followed their parents.  {tlha'} - chase, follow
    The priest thought about his sins.  {qel} - consider, take into account
        (Think of "to think about" as a single complex verb.)

In the above examples, the subject not only experiences the steady state 
indicated by the verb, but is also responsible for the state; i.e., the subject is 
also in control. Thus, the subject is both the agent and the patient, and the 
object is the focus."

Seen this way, it's misleading (at the very least) to say that all verbs are 
actions.  There are different kinds of verbs.  Some are actions and some are 
states.

lay'tel SIvten

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