Theta criterion
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In syntax, the theta criterion (in its original form) states that in a grammatical sentence, every theta role that a verb can assign must be realized by some argument, and each argument may bear only a single theta role.[1] So, for instance, for the verb send, which is associated with the theta-roles of Agent, Goal and Theme, a well formed sentence might look like this:
- Robert sent Mary a package.
Here, the three theta roles are assigned to Robert, Mary and a package, respectively. The sentence would be malformed if any of these arguments were absent.
[edit] References
- ^ Chomsky, Noam (1981/1993). Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures. Mouton de Gruyter. See p. 36
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[edit] Apparent violations
It is often noted that sometimes arguments of the verb are not overtly present, and that sometimes the verb may take more arguments than specified in the lexicon:
- Gladius Maximus died the death befitting a Roman soldier.
- John ate.
- Going to the store, be back later!
Linguists often explain sentences 2 and 3, where the verbs seem to be missing arguments, by positing a silent pronoun (PRO) that occupies the phonologically empty argument positions. This can be justified by noting that one cannot get the meaning from sentence 2 that John ate something inedible, such as a rock, and that in sentence 3 there is a clear implied first-person subject.
In sentence 1, however, there is no clear theta-position that the death is occupying; it is unclear what licenses this cognate object, producing a pseudo-transitive use of the verb died.
