Semantic Roles of

Clause Elements &

Subject-Verb Concord
Florian Mehm & Christian Heinig

PS Grammar, 2007-01-24
Contents (1)
„ Semantic roles of clause elements
… Introduction
… Semantic roles
… Interaction between semantic roles and
syntax
… Transitivity in Systemic Functional Grammar
… Case grammar
… Frame grammar / FrameNet

2
Contents (2)
„ Subject-verb concord
… Introduction
… General rule (grammatical concord)
… Notional concord
… Proximity
… Coordination
… Summary

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Semantic Roles of
Clause Elements
Identifying the subject
„ The duke gave my aunt this teapot.

„ This teapot my aunt was given by the

duke.

„ This teapot was given to my aunt by the

duke.

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What is the subject
„ Grammatical subject: is related to the predicate
via the verb
… This teapot my aunt was given by the duke.
„ Logical subject: the actor that brings the
happening about
… This teapot my aunt was given by the duke.
„ Psychological subject: The subject that the
speaker puts emphasis on
… This teapot my aunt was given by the duke.

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Semantic roles
„ The semantic role a noun phrase plays in a clause
(as opposed to syntactical function)
… (also called thematic role or theta-role)
„ There is no agreement over the set of semantic
roles.
… Fillmore (1968) lists 6
… Quirk et. al. (1985) list 13
„ Theta-criterion: Each NP covers exactly one role
and each role is present at most once in a clause.

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Semantic roles as deep cases (1)
„ Grammatical cases indicate the relations
between words on the level of syntax.

„ Semantic roles indicate the relation

between participants on the level of
semantics.

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Semantic roles as deep cases (2)
„ Semantic roles remain the same in
paraphrases while the NPs change
grammatical function and case.
… The duke gave her this teapot.
… This teapot she was given by the duke.

„ They are therefore called “deep cases” by

Fillmore (1968).

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AGENTIVE
„ (also AGENT)
„ The animate being instigating or causing
the happening.
… Margaret is mowing the grass.
… The game is played by more than 8 million
players.
„ Usual role of subject

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AFFECTED (1)
„ (also PATIENT or OBJECTIVE)
„ A participant (animate or inanimate) which does
not cause the happening, but is directly involved
in some other way
„ Usual choice for the direct object
… James sold his digital watch yesterday.
… The researchers discovered a fascinating thing.

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AFFECTED (2)
„ Also possible for the subject
… The pencil was lying on the table.

„ IDENTIFIED:
… Kevin is my brother.
„ CHARACTERIZED:
… The fish is frying.

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RECIPIENT
„ (also DATIVE)
„ The animate being that is passively implicated
by the happening or state
„ Typical choice for the indirect object
… The duke gave my aunt this teapot.
„ Also possible for the subject:
… John saw the bright morning sky.
… (With verbs of cognition/feeling/sensing also called
EXPERIENCER or SENSER)

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ATTRIBUTE
„ Typical for subject (SC) and object (OC) complement
„ IDENTIFICATION
… Kevin is my brother. (SC)
… They called their daughter Edna. (OC)
„ CHARACTERIZATION
… Animals are a major group of organisms. (SC)
… The teacher called their daughter a good student. (OC)
„ CURRENT ATTRIBUTE: He's my brother.
„ RESULTING ATTRIBUTE: He turned traitor.

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Further roles (1)
„ EXTERNAL CAUSER: The unwitting (generally
inanimate) cause of an event.
… The avalanche destroyed several houses.

„ INSTRUMENT: The entity (usually inanimate)

which an agent uses to perform an action.
… As subject: A car knocked them down.
… As object: We employ a computer for our calculations.

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Further roles (2)
„ POSITIONER: With verbs related to stance (e.g. sit,
stand, remain, keep, hold). The subject is in control but
there is no change in the situation
… He kept himself upright.
… My friend is sitting in a chair near the door.
„ Prop it subject (Used when no subject is required)
… Time: It's ten o'clock precisely.
… Atmospheric conditions: It's raining.
… Distance: It's a long way to Denver.

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Further roles (3)
„ LOCATIVE: Designating the place of the action
… As subject: Los Angeles is foggy.
… As object: We walked the streets.
„ TEMPORAL: Designating the time of the action
… Yesterday was a holiday.
„ EVENTIVE (as subject):
… The match is tomorrow.

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Further roles (4)
„ RESULTANT: The object exists only by virtue of the
happening
… I'm writing a letter.
„ COGNATE: Object is semantically and often
morphologically related to the verb; It has the role of
repeating the content
… Chris will sing a song for us.
„ EVENTIVE (as object): verb of general meaning (have,
do, give) + deverbal noun; extension of the verb
… They are having an argument.

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Effects on syntax (1)
„ We usually cannot coordinate subjects with
different roles:
… The gamekeeper wounded him. (AGENTIVE)
… A gun wounded him. (INSTRUMENTAL)
… * The gamekeeper and a gun wounded him.
„ Possible with EXTERNAL CAUSER +
AGENTIVE
… Hurricanes and marauding bands devastated the
region (at different times).

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Effects on syntax (2)
„ When a subject plays the RECIPIENT (or
EXPERIENCER) role, the relation
between subject and verb is not one of
“doing” something, therefore it is not
possible to probe or substitute using the
verb “do”.
… Mary liked the gift.
… * What did Mary do to the gift? She liked it.
… * What Mary did to the gift was like it.

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Interactions of verbs and roles
„ Verbs may have restrictions on the roles in
the sentence.
„ Example: taste, smell, feel
„ Have a sense that requires AGENTIVE
and one that requires RECIPIENT
… Foolishly, he tasted the soup.
… * Foolishly, he tasted the pepper in the soup.

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Choice of subject
„ The first role from this list that is present is
usually chosen as subject:
… AGENT, EXTERNAL CAUSER, POSITIONER
… AFFECTED
… TEMPORAL, LOCATIVE, EVENTIVE
… Prop word “it”
„ (e.g. if there is no AGENT, EXTERNAL
CAUSER or POSITIONER but an AFFECTED, it
will be chosen as subject.)

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Transitivity system of Systemic
Functional Grammar
„ Identifies 6 different process types (material,
mental, relational, behavioural, verbal,
existential) with corresponding participant roles
„ Example: mental clauses
… Senser
… Phenomenon
„ Mary liked the gift.
„ The gift pleased Mary.

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Case grammar
„ Introduced by Charles J. Fillmore in 1968
„ Construes sentences as the combination
of a verb and a set of deep cases
(semantic roles)
„ Each verb has a case frame, indicating
which deep cases can be used in a clause
using this verb.

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Frame grammar
„ Further development from case grammar
„ Assumes that...
… lexicalitems are related in the context of
frames.
… choosing different items from one frame
foregrounds varying aspects of the
background frame.

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FrameNet (1)
„ Online database featuring more than 625
semantic frames
„ http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/
„ 135.000 sentences annotated using the
frames

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FrameNet (2)
„ The Education_teaching frame
„ “This frame contains words referring to
teaching and the participants in teaching.
A Student comes to learn either about a
Subject; a Skill; a Precept; or a Fact as a
result of instruction by a Teacher.”

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FrameNet (3)
„ My friend studies psychology.
„ Psychology is being taught to my friend.
„ My friend receives training in psychology.
„ My friend is a student of psychology.

„ Variation (active/passive, subject choice, implication of

the teaching institution) between the sentences, yet the
same situation is described using the same frame
elements.

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Subject-Verb Concord
Introduction
„ Concord / “agreement”: relationship
between two grammatical units where a
feature (e.g. plurality) in one unit accords
to a feature in the other.
„ The concord of 3rd person number
between subject and verb (“grammatical
concord”) is the most common and
important type of concord in English.

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General rule
„ Subject is singular Æ verb must also be singular
… The mouse eats the cheese.
… The cat chases the mouse.

„ Subject is plural Æ verb must also be plural

… The dogs hunt the cat.
… The killers shoot the dogs.

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Noun phrases, (non)finite clauses

„ A NP as subject counts as singular if its head is

singular.
… The change in the algorithm is well documented.
… The changes in the algorithm are well documented.

„ Finite and nonfinite clauses: singular.

… How you got there doesn’t concern me.

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PPs, nominal relative clauses
„ PPs and adverbs that function as subject are
also considered singular.
… Inthe evenings is best for me.
… Slowly does it!

„ Nominal relative clauses: concord depends on

the number of the determined noun.
… What was once a palace is now a pile of rubble.
… What ideas he has are his wife’s.

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Special cases (1)
„ “to be” is the only verb that shows concord
of number in the 3rd person past.
… My daughter was watching TV.
… My daughters were watching TV.
„ All other verbs only display concord in the
3rd person present.
… My daughter watched TV.
… My daughters watched TV.

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Special cases (2)
„ There is no number concord in nonfinite
verbs / imperatives, only in the indicative.

„ Modal auxiliaries also do not show number

concord.
… My daughter may watch TV.
… My daughters may watch TV.

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Notional concord (1)
„ Agreement not based on the grammatical
number, but on the notion.
… The has/have?
government have broken
broken all
all their
its/their? promises.
promises. <BrE> <BrE>
„ Plural NPs of quantity or measure:
singular is used.
… Tendollars is all I have left.
… Two miles is as far as they can walk.

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Notional concord (2)
„ With “more than” grammatical concord is
more frequently used than notional
concord.
… More than a thousand inhabitants have
signed the petition.
… More than one member has protested against
the proposal.

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Notional concord (3)
„ Collective nouns: in BrE the number of the
verb usually depends on whether the
group is notionally a collection of
individuals or a single unit.
… The audience were enjoying every minute of
it. (Each individual enjoys it!)
… The audience was enormous. (Not every
person is enormously large!)

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Notional concord (4)
„ In AmE, singular collective nouns normally
require a singular verb.
„ But plural pronouns are frequent:
… The committee has not yet decided how they should
react to the Governor’s letter.

„ In doubt it is generally safer to use the singular

verb, obeying to grammatical concord.

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Proximity / “attraction”
„ Agreement of the verb with a closely preceding
NP instead of the head of the subject NP.
…? No one except his own supporters agree with him.
… ?* A good knowledge of English, Russian and French
are required for this position.

„ The principle of proximity is mostly used in

speech. In writing grammatical concord is
preferable.

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Coordinated subject (and)
„ Subject consists of NPs coordinated by and:
plural is required (exception: next slide).
… Alice and Bob are encrypting their mails.
… (Alice is encrypting her mails and Bob is encrypting
his mails.)
„ Also true for premodified singular non-countable
noun heads:
… American and Dutch beer are much lighter than
British Beer.

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Coordinative apposition
„ If the coordinated units have the same
reference, a singular verb is required (if
each NP is singular).
… This temple of ugliness and memorial to
Victorian bad taste was erected in the main
street of the city.
… “temple” and “memorial” both refer to the
same statue!

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Coordinated subject (or) (1)
„ Subject consists of NPs coordinated by or.

… Each NP is singular: verb is also singular.

„ Either the mayor or her deputy is bound to come.

… Each NP is plural: verb is also plural.

„ Either the strikers or the bosses have
misunderstood the claim.

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Coordinated subject (or) (2)
… One NP is plural and one is singular:
principle of proximity is used!
„ is/are?
Either your brakes or your eyesight is at fault.
at fault.
is/are?
„ Either your eyesight or your brakes are at fault.
at fault.

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Summary
„ grammatical concord
… grammatical number of the subject defines number of the verb
… followed in writing and formal usage
„ notional concord
… semantic number of the subject defines number of the verb
… only used in colloquial English
„ principle of proximity
… number of the nearest noun phrase defines number of the verb
… only tips the scales when the other two principles provide no
guidance or are in conflict (which is only occasionally)

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References
„ Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey
Leech, Jan Svartvik. 1985. A Comprehensive
Grammar of the English Language. London,
New York: Longman.
„ Halliday, M.A.K., Matthiessen, Christian. 2004.
An Introduction to Functional Grammar.
„ Fillmore, Charles J. 1968. The Case for Case.

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Feel free to ask
questions now…

Thanks for your attention.