Ainun Najmah Alhadid

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Semantic Roles and Semantic Principles

 Exercise 1 (Exercise 1 page 133)

Exercise 1: Provide the reader with illustrative examples to the following semantic
roles:
1. Agent: the role of an argument that performs an action deliberately, or accidently but
affecting another entity, as in:
 She kicked the door.
She is the agent that performs action which affects another entity, the door.

2. Recipient: The role of an argument that names the receiver of the entity, as in
 Josh gave her the key.
The said receiver of the entity here is her.

3. Source: The role of an argument that tells the starting point of an entity (i.e., the
starting point from which it moves), as in”
 John walked home from the bakery.
The starting point from which John moves is the bakery.

4. Goal: The role of an argument that tells the endpoint of an entity (i.e., the endpoint to
which it moves), as in:
 She went home by taxi.
The end point to which she moves is home.

5. Location: The role of an argument that identifies the location of an entity, as in:
 I saw her at the park.
The location of said entity (her) is at the park.

6. Instrument: The role of an argument with which the agent performs the action, as
in:
 She sliced the apples with a knife.

The role of a knife is as an instrument for the agent, she, to perform the
action.
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7. Causer: The role of an argument that is directly involved in the causation of an

event, as in:
 My hometown was destroyed by the tsunami.

The event, was destroyed, has a direct causation, that is, the tsunami.

8. Resultant: The role of an argument that comes into existence as a result of the
agent’s action, as in:
 She made an omelette.
An omelette comes into existence as a result of the agent’s action, made.

9. Patient: The role of an argument that undergoes an action and changes its state
because of another entity or due to the described event, as in:
 She tears a piece of paper.

A piece of paper undergoes an action and changes its state because of another
entity, she.

10. Stimulus: The role of an argument that identifies the source of sensory or
emotional feeling that affects another entity without any action, as in:
 The queen resents the peasant.

Without any action, the queen resents, affects another entity, the peasant.

 Exercise 2 (Question 3 page 150)

Do you agree that in any language there are wide-ranging expressions whose
meanings cannot be figured out by falling back on the meanings of their parts and the
way they are ordered to form larger units? Discuss with illustrative examples.
Answer:
Yes, I agree that in any language there are wide-ranging expressions
whose meanings cannot be figured out by falling back on the meanings
of their parts and the way they are ordered to form larger units. For example:
a) The expression, “long face”, means “an unhappy or disappointed expression”
(Oxford Languages) as in “Why the long face?”. “Long face” in this sentence
does not mean that the said face is visibly long. If “long” and “face” is
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separated, the meaning will change back to normal. In Bahasa Indonesia, we

have a similar term “muka masam”. “Muka” means “face” while “masam”
means “sour”. It does not mean that the said face tastes sour, its meaning is
similar to English’s “long face”.
b) The expression, “silver lining” means “something good that can be found in a
bad situation” (Britannica) as in “The injury had a silver lining: it enabled
Blake to spend his father's last weeks with him”, it does not mean a literal
lining that is silver.
c) The expression, “man-child” means “an adult man who does not behave in the
calm, serious, or sensible way that you would expect from someone of his
age” (Cambridge English Dictionary), as in, “Her fiancé is portrayed as a
feckless man-child.” If separated, “man” and “child are the opposite of each
other.
d) The expression, 赤い糸 (akai ito), literally means “red (akai)” and string (ito),
but if used together, it often refers to connection between romantic soulmates
that is not bound by distance nor time. In East Asia, including Japan, it is
believed that in each person’s little finger there is a red, invisible, thread that
connects them to their true love. It does not literally mean an any ordinary
string that is red.