TESL 1003 Structure of English II

Morphology, Syntax & Semantics

Syntax Handout 9: Theta Theory, Case Theory and Movement processes
Dr. Tharanga Weerasooriya

1. Theta Theory

Thematic relations are particular semantic terms that are used to describe the role that the
argument plays with respect to the predicate.

The initiator or doer of an action is called the agent. In the following sentences, Ryan and
Michael are agents.

1) a) Ryan hit Andrew.

b) Michael accidentally broke the glass.

Agents are most frequently subjects, but they can also appear in other positions.

Arguments that feel or perceive events are called experiencers. Experiencers can appear in a
number of argument positions, including subject and object:

2) a) Leah likes cookies.

b)  Lorenzo saw the eclipse.
c)  Syntax frightens Kenny.

Entities that undergo actions or are moved, experienced, or perceived are called themes.

3) a) Alyssa kept her syntax book.

b)  The arrow hit Ben.
c)  The syntactician hates phonology.

There is a special kind of goal called recipient. Recipients only occur with verbs that denote a
change of possession:

04) a) Mikaela gave Jessica the book.

b) Daniel received a scolding from Hanna.

The opposite of a goal is the source. This is the entity from which a motion originates:

05) a) Bob gave Steve the syntax assignment.

b) Stacy came directly from sociolinguistics class.

The place where the action occurs is called the location:

06) a) Andrew is in Tucson’s finest apartment.

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b) We’re all at school.

The object with which an action is performed is called the instrument:

07) a) Chris hacked the computer apart with an axe.

b) This key will open the door to the linguistics building.

Finally, the one for whose benefit an event took place is called the beneficiary:

08) a) He bought these flowers for Aaron.

b) She cooked Matt dinner.

Notice that any given DP can have more than one thematic relation. In the following sentence,
the DP Jason bears the thematic relations of agent and source (at the very least).

09) Jason gave the books to Anna.

There is no one-to-one relationship between thematic relations and arguments. However,

linguists have a special construct called a theta role (or  role) that does map one-to-one with
arguments.

Read pages 232

2. Case Theory

In many languages, nouns bearing various grammatical relations take special forms. For
example, in Japanese, subjects are marked with the suffix -ga, objects are marked with -o and
indirect objects and certain adjuncts with -ni: In Sinhala, only certain subjects are marked with
the suffix -ta, direct objects are marked with the suffix -wa, indirect objects are marked with the
suffix -ta.

These suffixes represent grammatical relations (see chapter 4). The three most important
grammatical relations are subject, object, and indirect object. Notice that these are not the same
as thematic relations. Thematic relations represent meaning. Grammatical relations represent
how a DP is functioning in the sentence syntactically. The morphology associated with
grammatical relations is called case. The two cases we will be primarily concerned with here are
the nominative case, which is found with subjects, and the accusative case, found with objects.

English is a morphologically poor language. In sentences with full DPs, there is no obvious case
marking. Grammatical relations are represented by the position of the noun in the sentence:

01) a) Jennifer swatted Steve.

b) Steve swatted Jennifer.

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There is no difference in form between Jennifer in (01a), where the DP is functioning as a
subject, and (01b), where it is functioning as an object. With pronouns, by contrast, there is a
clear morphological difference, as we observed in chapter 1.

02) a) She swatted him.

b) He swatted her.

Most pronouns in English have different forms depending upon what case they are in:

03) Nominative: I you he she it we you they

Accusative: me you him her it us you them

Can this be extended to full DPs? Well, consider the general poverty of English morphology.
The first and second persons in the present tense form of verbs don’t take any overt suffix:

Indeed, in the system we are proposing here all nouns get case – we just don’t see it overtly in
the pronounced morphology. This is called abstract Case. (Abstract Case normally has a capital
C to distinguish it from morphological case.)

Case, then, is a general property of language. Furthermore, it seems to be associated with a

syntactic phenomenon – the grammatical functions (relations) of DPs. If it is indeed a syntactic
property, then it should have a structural trigger. In the Case theory of Chomsky (1981), DPs are
given Case if and only if they appear in specific positions in the sentence. In particular,
nominative Case is assigned in the specifier of finite T, and accusative Case is assigned as a
sister to the verb (prepositions also assign what is often called “prepositional Case” to their
complement DP.

05) NOMinative Case: Specifier of finite T

ACCusative Case: Sister to transitive V

PREPositional Case: Assigned by a preposition

Case serves as our motivation for DP movement. You can think of Case as being like a driver’s
license. You can’t drive without a license, and you can only get a license at the Department of
Motor Vehicles. So you have to go there to get the license. A DP needs a license to surface in the
sentence, and it can only get a license (Case) in specific positions. If it isn’t in one of those
positions, it must move to get Case. A DP without Case can’t drive.

Read pages 338 and 339.

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3. Movement in Wh-questions

If you look closely at a statement and a related wh-question, you’ll see that the wh-phrase
appears in a position far away from the position where its theta role is assigned. Take for
example:

1) a) Becky bought the syntax book.

b) What did Becky buy?

The verb buy in English takes two theta roles, an external agent and an internal theme. In
sentence (1a), Becky is the agent, and the syntax book is the theme. In sentence (1b) Becky is the
agent and what is the theme. In the first sentence, the theme is the object of the verb, in the
second the theme is at the beginning of the clause.

Read the pages 360-361

4. Movement in Passives

Case theory also allows an explanation of passive constructions. However, this requires an
additional piece of machinery to be added to the passive morphology. Only active transitive
verbs can assign accusative Case:

01) He kissed her.

Passive verbs cannot:

02) a) She was kissed.

b) *She was kissed him.
c) *It was kissed her. (where it is an expletive)

Read the pages 343