Study of how the meanings of words combine to form the meanings of sentences.
Compositional Meanings
The meaning of a sentence can be figured out by looking up the meanings of the words.
It is raining todayis compositional, butIt is raining cats and dogsis not compositional.
Sense of a Sentence
The sense of a sentence is a Proposition. The reference of a sentence is its truth value.
Thematic Roles
Thematic Roles
Thematic roles describe the semantic relationships between verbs and their arguments. Violating these semantic requirements leads to semantic anomalies rather than ungrammaticality e.g.
*The small train loves chocolate.Thematic Roles for NP
- Agent: the entity that intentionally performs an action. (e.g.,
WinnieinWinnie fought the bear.)- Experiencer: the entity that experiences a psychological state. (e.g.,
CharlesinCharles felt sad about his Discovery.)- Theme: the entity affected by an action. (e.g.,
the boulderinI push the boulder with all my might.)- Benefactive: the entity that benefits from an action. (e.g.,
usinHe wiped the tables clean for us.)- Source: the entity from which something is moved by performing an action. (e.g.,
SpaininI traveled from Spain to Italy.)- Goal: the entity toward which an action is directed. (e.g.,
ItalyinI traveled from Spain to Italy.)- Instrument: the object in which the action is completed with. (e.g.
an axeinI slashed the body up with an axe.)Thematic Grids
A thematic grid lists these thematic roles in order for a specific verb context.
Link to original
- Dive:
<Agent>(e.g., The puppy dove)- Devour:
<Agent, Theme>(e.g., A big monster devoured the kid)- Give:
<Agent, Theme, Goal>(e.g., Susie gave a bucket to Charlie)- Borrow:
<Agent, Theme, Source>e.g., My dad borrowed $10,000 from me.