[86966] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: The topic marker -'e'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Trimboli)
Mon Nov 23 10:44:42 2009
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:42:57 -0500
From: David Trimboli <david@trimboli.name>
In-reply-to: <1cb7130b0911230637y66fb3d67if4d720c53de397e6@mail.gmail.com>
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Tracy Canfield wrote:
>> On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 1:40 AM, Tracy Canfield <toastrix@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> mIS puq
>>>
>>> "puq" is the subject, but it isn't an agent.
>> Why not?
>>
> Because "agent" is specialized linguistic terminology that means
> something other than "subject". It's part of a classification system
> called thematic roles - often called theta roles - that's used by
> linguists to describe the semantic roles noun phrases play in
> sentences and distinguish them from the syntactic roles. This isn't
> an English-specific system; it's used cross-linguistically.
Tracy is correct. An agent is a noun that carries out an action. An
*experiencer* is a noun that receives sensory or emotional input. I
think {puq} in {mIS puq} is an experiencer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_relations
--
SuStel
tlhIngan Hol MUSH
http://trimboli.name/mush
