Theoretical English Grammar. Part 2. Syntax. Бочарова М.В. - 20 стр.

             A real life situation                        A sentence
 – An event                                 – the predicate (usu. V)
 – Its participants                         – arguments (usu. noun groups refer-
 – Its circumstances                        ring to the predicate)
 + interrelations between them              + syntactic and semantic relations be-
                                            tween them


o Arguments perform definite semantic roles according to the type of the par-
ticipant of the real life situation they name.


o The function of the predicate is central to the semantic structure of the sen-
tence, as:


1) its semantics determines the whole range of semantic roles that can be ex-
   pressed in the sentence (= the role structure of the verb / the frame of the
   verb); some roles manifested by the verb are obligatory, others are optional;


2) it reflects the relations between its arguments (� between the participants of
   the real life situation).


o The basic semantic pattern of the sentence = proposition:
The meaning of action / event + the minimal set of semantic roles, which makes
the sentence semantically complete.


SEMANTIC ROLES


o Agent – an animate object, usu. a human being, that performs an action con-
sciously and/ or purposefully; + an actional verb:
   1a. Causative agent performs an action;
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