patient role
Học thuậtThân thiện
The patient role is often illustrated with simple sentences like "The ball is kicked."
Definition
- Noun:
- The semantic role of an entity that is not the agent but is directly involved in or affected by the happening denoted by the verb in the clause: In linguistics, the "patient role" is a thematic relation. It describes the participant in an event that undergoes a change of state or condition, or is directly affected by the action performed by an agent.
Usage Examples
- Noun:
- In the sentence "The window broke," the noun phrase "the window" fills the patient role.
- The verb "to build" typically requires an agent (the builder) and a patient (the thing being built).
- Identifying the patient role in a clause helps to understand the relationship between the verb and its arguments.
Advanced Usage
- In syntactic analysis: The patient role is often, but not always, mapped to the grammatical object of a transitive verb in active voice constructions.
- In "She read the book," "the book" is in the patient role.
- In voice transformations: The patient role frequently becomes the grammatical subject when a sentence is changed from active to passive voice.
- The patient role "the letter" in "He mailed the letter" becomes the subject in the passive: "The letter was mailed."
Variants and Related Words
- Patient (n): A shorter, more general term for the entity fulfilling the patient role.
- "Cake" is the patient in "She baked a cake."
- Theme (n): In some linguistic frameworks, "theme" is a similar or overlapping semantic role for an entity that is moved or located.
- Undergoer (n): A descriptive term for an entity that undergoes the action.
Synonyms
- Undergoer: An entity that experiences the action.
- Affected participant: An entity directly affected by the verbal action.
Related Concepts (Not Phrasal Verbs)
- Agent role: The semantic role of the deliberate instigator or performer of an action, often contrasted with the patient role.
- In "The chef cooked the meal," "the chef" has the agent role and "the meal" has the patient role.
- Grammatical object: The syntactic position often associated with the patient role in active sentences.
The patient role is often illustrated with simple sentences like "The ball is kicked."
Noun
- the semantic role of an entity that is not the agent but is directly involved in or affected by the happening denoted by the verb in the clause