Participant Role in Semantics

Introduction

A human would like express his or her idea or thought through sentences to give information to the other. A sentence is a string of words that contains certain information. The information which is presented by the different sentences, in parts of sentences, is called proposition. Proposition is the referring expression which is abstract but meaningful.

In semantic analysis, every proposition contains one predicate and a number of expressions called arguments. The use of predicate is to make the specific relation with the arguments. Here, predicate is a verb, an adjective, a preposition, or a noun phrase. While argument is a role that is referring to the person, things, etc.

Kreidler (1998: 68) states, the arguments that accompany the predicate have different semantic functions, or roles, in the proposition. The semantic function which is the role of arguments depends on the predicate in producing meaning.

The semantic roles have the same name with semantic cases, thematic cases, thematic roles, participant roles, or thematic functions by other linguists (ibid, 82). Although they have the same meaning and function, this paper would like to define participant roles as the role that is conducted by the person or the thing to describe the referring expression in particular situation.

This paper is started from the definition and illustration of participant role and the position of referring expression. Then, the theory will be applied by analyzing the article of ‘People Education’ taken from in the Star Golf.

Participant Role

            Fillmore (1968: 19) as the pioneer of participant role in ‘The Case For Case’ state that the term ‘case’ for the kind of remote syntactic-semantic relations that are at issue. In this case, syntactic is as grammatical notion has a place in the element of the grammar of every language then identify it into meaning. Therefore in the universality of the theory, Fillmore says:

            “The case notions comprise a set of universal, presumably innate, concepts which identify certain types of judgments human beings are capable of making about the events that are going on around them, judgments about such matters as who did it, who it happened to, and what got changed” (ibid, 24).

           

            The cases that are classified by Fillmore are as follows:

Agentive (A), the case of typically animate perceived instigator of the action identified by the verb.

Instrumental (I), the case of inanimate force or object causally involved in the action or state identified by the verb.

Dative (D), the case of the animate being affected by the state or action identified by the verb.

Factitive (F), the case of the object or being resulting from the action or state identified by the verb, or understood as a part of the meaning of the verb.

Locative (L), the case which identifies the location or spatial orientation of the state or action identified by the verb.

Objective (O), the semantically most neutral case, the case of anything representable by a noun whose role in the action or state identified by the verb is identified by the semantic interpretation of the verb itself.; conceivably the concept should be limited to things which are affected by the action or state identified by the verb. The term is not to be confused with the notion of direct object, nor with the name of the surface case synonymous with accusative.

Case grammar focused on the description of participant role that is played by an argument in the formed of referring expression. In other words, argument determines participants roles.

            Participant role can be defined as a role or position that is associated with argument, or the roles that argument has.

            Soekemi (2000: 113) divides the roles played by the participant object and people into:

1. Agent, the person carrying out the action described.
2. Affected, the thing or the person, upon which the action is carried out.
3. Instrument, the thing by means of which the action is carried out
4. Beneficiary, the person for whose benefit the action.
5. Location, the place where the action described.

While, Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams (2003) classify the thematic roles into:

1. Agent, the one who performs an action.

For example: Joyce ran.

2. Theme, the one or thing that undergoes an action.

For example: Mary found the puppy.

3. Location, the place where an action happens.

For example: It rains in Surabaya.

4. Goal, The place to which an action originates

For example: He flew from Singapore to Surabaya.

5. Instrument, the means by which an action is performed.

For example: Freddie cuts hair with a razor.

6. Experiencer, one who perceives something.

For example: Idham heard Betty playing the guitar.

7. Causative, a natural force that causes a change.

For example: The wind damaged the roof.

8. Possessor, one who has something.

For example: The tail of the dog wagged furiously.

(pp. 193-194)

From those different classifications, it can be drawn the participant roles as follows:

1. Agent, can be called the doer, that is the person who performs an action.

For example: Freddie ran. ‘Freddie’ is an agent.

2. Affected, can be called as theme, that is the person or the thing is affected by the state or action identified by the verb.

For example: Marry found the puppy. ‘The Puppy’ is the role of affected in the sentence.

3. Instrument, is the thing by means of which the action is carried out. Instrument is indicated by “with”.

For example: The gardener opened the gate with the key. ‘The key’ is the role of instrument in the sentence.

4. Beneficiary, is the person whose benefit the action. It is indicated by “for”.

For example: The gardener opened the gate for the students in the campus. ‘The students’ is a role of beneficiary in the sentence.

e.       Location, can be identified by the goal as referring to the place. Location can be identified by “at”, “in”, “from”, etc. For example: The gardener opened the gate for the students in the campus. ‘In the campus’ is a role of location in the sentence.

f.       Possessor, one who has something.

For example: The tail of the dog wagged furiously.

The important rule of participant roles

               Base on the case grammar by Fillmore, the rules is established to make apriority according to the subject in a proposition. He says, “if there is an A, it becomes the subject, otherwise if there is an I, it becomes the subject; otherwise, the subject is the O” (Fillmore, 1968: 33).

               Fillmore (1968: 32) also identifies the rules of preposition to indicate the role as follows:

               “The A preposition is by; the I preposition is by if there is no A, otherwise it is with; the O and F prepositions are typically zero; the B preposition is for; the D preposition is typically to; the L and T (for time) prepositions are either semantically nonempty (in which case they are introduced as optional choices from the lexicon), or they are selected by the particular associated noun [on the street, at the corner (=intersection of twos streets), in the corner (of a room); on Monday, at noon, in the afternoon].”

2.2. The position of referring expression

      According to Soekemi (2000: 114) there are three different grammatical position of referring expression in sentences.

a.       Subject position: preceding a main verb

b.      Object position: immediately following a main verb

c.       Complement position: after a verb, but not immediately, often after a preposition.

For example: The gardener  opened  the gate  with    the key

                             S                 V            O        Prep.    Complement

               The following table is used to make it easier to understand about the position role and grammatical position.

Table 1: The position role and grammatical position

	Subject	Object	Complement
Agent	The gardener
Affected		The gate
Instrument			With the key

Deep Structure and Semantic Representation

               The structure of semantic theory is used to correlate the form units in the sentence. It is the study of the sense relations between words that is embedded into structure as a system of interrelated elements. In the transformational grammar, there are two levels in the syntactic structure, namely deep structure and surface structure. As Lyon (1995: 211) defines about deep structure, is more intimately connected with sentence-meaning than surface structure, which is more intimately connected with the way sentence is pronounced. Sentence-meaning in deep structure is held to include participant role. In this case, using deep structure is necessary for interpreting the sentence. For example:

a. ‘Diana is easy to please.’ This sentence means that ‘it is easy for someone to please Diana’. This sentence also has the same meaning with ‘someone pleases Diana’. ‘Diana’ here is receiver.

b. ‘Diana is eager to please.’ This sentence has the same meaning with ‘Diana pleases someone’. ‘Diana’ here is the doer.

            S          NP + VP

The structure above is used to make diagram tree. It is necessarily used to get the point in classifying participant role.

For example: The baby slept.

                                    S                                  S= Sentence

                         NP                  VP                   NP= Noun Phrase

               D                  N           V                   VP=Verb Phrase

               The               baby     slept                D= Determiner

NP          D+N                                                 VP       V + NP

               N                                                                  V + PP

               D + Adj. + N                                               V + NP + PP

               Pronoun                                                        V + Adj

                                                                                    V

 Analysis and Discussion

 Analysis

               By analyzing the data which is taken from the Star Golf, is expected more understand about the participant role in semantics.

1.      Cardio-thoratic surgeon Datuk Dr Zainuddin Wazir decided to venture beyond the operating theatre and became an agriculturalist.

‘Cardio-thoratic surgeon Datuk Dr Zainuddin Wazir’ has a role of an agent with the position as the subject that preceding a main verb. Meanwhile, ‘the operating theatre’ and ‘agriculturalist’ are roles of a theme that undergoes an action with the position as the object in the sentence.

2. For years, he single-mindedly pursued a career as a heart speacialist.

      ‘For years’ is a role of time in the sentence. ‘He’ is as an agent has grammatical position as the subject in the sentence. ‘A career’ has a role as a theme in the sentence with a grammatical position of object in the sentence. Likewise, ‘for years’ is as a time in participant role and as complement in grammatical position.

3. In recognition of his abilities, he was transferred from the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital (GH) to Penang GH to set up the heart centre there in 1994.

      ‘He’ in the sentence has the position role as affected because ‘he’ here is the person -Datuk Dr Zainuddin Wazir, is affected by the state or action identified by the verb that is ‘transferred’. The grammatical position of ‘he’ is as a subject in the passive voice. ‘From the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital (HG)’ is indicated as location in participant role because it is indicated by ‘from’ that referring to the place.

4.  The entrepreneurial spirit in him set him on the path to yet another challenge – the time he partially traded his surgical gloves for a straw hat.

      ‘He’ is an agent in the sentence. The grammatical position of ‘he’ in the sentence is as the subject that is preceding the main verb of ’traded’. ‘His surgical gloves’ is indicated as theme in a participant role. ‘His surgical gloves’ is also indicated as the object in grammatical position because it immediately following a main verb of ‘traded’.

5. He decided to grow bananas on a commercial scale..

      ‘He’ is an agent in a participant role, has the function as a subject in the sentence. And ‘bananas’ is an affected that the action is carried out. ‘Bananas’ here has position grammatical of an object in the sentence.

6. Many of my Medan clients were involved in the agriculture business….

      ‘Many of my Medan clients’ is indicated as affected in the participant role because this thing is affected by the state identified by the verb ‘were involved’. Then, ‘in the agriculture business’ is as a location in participant role that is indicated by ‘in’.

7. …I became interested and did a lot of research on my own, talking to experts and looking at the various crops that could be cultivated…

      ‘I’ is the role of affected in the sentence. In this case, ‘I’ is indicated as subject in grammatical position of passive voice. ‘A lot of research’ is also the role of affected in the sentence which is the thing that is affected by the action identified by the verb ‘did’. Therefore, ‘a lot of research has the grammatical position as an object. Then, ‘experts’ and ‘the various crops’ are also the roles of affected which is a person or a thing that is affected by the state or action identified by the verbs ‘talking to and ‘looking at’.

8. “Finally, based on advice given by Fama (Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority), we chose to focus on bananas although we also grow pineapples, papayas and jackfruit..

      ‘Advice’ is a role of affected, that is a thing that is affected by the state or action identified by the verb ‘given’. ‘Fama’ is an agent who is the doer of an action in the sentence. ‘We’ is the role of an agent or the doer does an action.  While, ‘bananas’ is an affected which has the grammatical function as an object. ‘We’ in the second clause is also an agent in the sentence which is as the doer does an action. ‘Pineapples, papayas, and jackfruit’ is an object in grammatical position with a role of affected in the sentence.

9. Once banana was decided as the main crop, Dr Zainuddin, who is Synergy Farm (M) Sdn Bhd executive chairman, visited China to see how it was grown there.

      ‘Banana’ is an affected in the sentence. It is the thing that is affected by the state or action identified by the verb. In this case, ‘banana’ becomes a subject in grammatical position in the passive voice. Then, Dr Zainuddin in the sentence has the role of an agent. It means that Dr Zainuddin is the doer which performs an action. Dr Zainuddin has grammatical position as a subject in the sentence. ‘China’ is a role of location in the sentence that grammatical position as an object in the sentence because it is immediately following a main verb.

10. We worked on the master plan for two years, looking at the business plan, market potential and the technology needed.

      ‘We’ is a role of an agent in the sentence. ‘We’ is the doer performs an action in the sentence. Therefore, ‘we’ has a grammatical function of subject in the sentence. ‘On the master plan’ is a role of location which is indicated by ‘on’ in the sentence. In this case, ‘on the master plan’ is an instrument in the grammatical position. And also, ‘for two years’ has a grammatical position of complement in the sentence which has a role of time. Then, ‘the business plan, market potential, and the technology needed’ is a role of an affected in the sentence which has the function as an object in grammatical position.

3.2. Discussion

            In the discussion, the table will be drawn to get the summary from the analysis.

1. Cardio-thoratic surgeon Datuk Dr Zainuddin Wazir decided to venture beyond the operating theatre and became an agriculturalist.

	Subject	Object	Complement
Agent	Cardio-thoratic surgeon Datuk Dr Zainuddin Wazir
Theme		The operating theatre
		An agriculturalist

2. For years, he single-mindedly pursued a career as a heart speacialist.

	Subject	Object	Complement
Time			For years
Agent	He
Theme		A career

3. In recognition of his abilities, he was transferred from the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital (GH) to Penang GH to set up the heart centre there in 1994.

	Subject	Object	Complement
Affected	He
Location			From the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital (GH)

4.  The entrepreneurial spirit in him set him on the path to yet another challenge – the time he partially traded his surgical gloves for a straw hat.

	Subject	Object	Complement
Agent	He
Theme		His surgical gloves

5. He decided to grow bananas on a commercial scale..

	Subject	Object	Complement
Agent	He
Affected		Bananas
Location			On a commercial scale

6. Many of my Medan clients were involved in the agriculture business….

	Subject	Object	Complement
Affected	Many of my medan clients
Location			in the agriculture business

7. …I became interested and did a lot of research on my own, talking to experts and looking at the various crops that could be cultivated…

	Subject	Object	Complement
Affected	I
Location		A lot of research
		Experts
		The various crops

8. “Finally, based on advice given by Fama (Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority), we chose to focus on bananas although we also grow pineapples, papayas and jackfruit..

	Subject	Object	Complement
Affected	Advice
		bananas
		Pineapples, papayas and jackfruit
Agent		Fama
	We
	We

9. Once banana was decided as the main crop, Dr Zainuddin, who is Synergy Farm (M) Sdn Bhd executive chairman, visited China to see how it was grown there.

	Subject	Object	Complement
Affected	banana
Agent	Dr Zainuddin
Location		China

10. We worked on the master plan for two years, looking at the business plan, market potential and the technology needed.

	Subject	Object	Complement
Agent	We
Location			On the master plan
Time			For two years
Affected		The business plan
		Market potential
		The technology needed

               From the table above, the participant roles and the position of referring expression can be identified clearly to get more understanding about the semantic roles.

               After making the table, the summary can be drawn that the sentence must have the agent as the subject to identify the doer who is doing the action in the sentence. Next, an object as the sufferer immediately following a main verb is often identified by the role of affected in the sentence. And the last, a complement is used to complete the sentence more detail. In the complement can be identified by the role of instrument, the role of location, the role of time and so forth.

 Conclusion

               The participant role is the role in the semantics as the position or a role that is associated with arguments. The participant role is the role that is conducted by the person or the thing to describe the referring expression in particular situation. The grammatical positions which consist of subject, object, and complement are identified in order to get more understanding about the position in the sentence.

               The participant role is often found in the sentence either speaking or writing. By identifying a role in a sentence and grammatical position, people can detect the sentence more clearly to get the understanding.

References

Fillmore, Charles J. 1998. “The case for case”, in E. Bach and R. Harms, eds, Universals in Linguistic theory (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston), 1-88.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language. Seventh Edition. USA.

Kreidler. Charless W. 1998. Introducing English Semantics. London.

Lyons, John. 1995. Linguistic Semantics. Australia: Cambridge University Press.

Soekemi, Kem. 2000. Semantics A Work Book Second Edition. Surabaya: UNESA University Press.

Star Golf, January 14^th, 2002.