This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (February 2016) |
In linguistics, the grammatical patient, also called the target or undergoer, is a semantic role representing the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out, or the thematic relation such a participant has with an action.
Sometimes, theme and patient are used to mean the same thing. When used to mean different things, patient describes a receiver that changes state ("I crushed the car") and theme describes something that does not change state ("I have the car"). By that definition, stative verbs act on themes, and dynamic verbs act on patients.
Theory
Typically, the situation is denoted by a sentence, the action by a verb in the sentence, and the patient by a noun phrase.
For example, in the sentence "Jack ate the cheese", the cheese is the patient. In certain languages, the patient is declined for case or otherwise marked to indicate its grammatical role. In Japanese, for instance, the patient is typically affixed with the particle o (hiragana を) when used with active transitive verbs, and the particle ga (hiragana が) when used with inactive intransitive verbs or adjectives. Although Modern English does not mark grammatical role on the noun (it uses word order), patienthood is represented irregularly in other ways; for instance, with the morphemes "-en", "-ed", or "-ee", as in eaten, used, or payee.[clarification needed]
The grammatical patient is often confused with the direct object. However, there is a significant difference. The patient is a semantic property, defined in terms of the meaning of a phrase; but the direct object is a syntactic property, defined in terms of the phrase's role in the structure of a sentence. For example, in the sentence "The dog bites the man", the man is both the patient and the direct object. By contrast, in the sentence "The man is bitten by the dog", which has the same meaning but different grammatical structure, the man is still the patient, but now stands as the phrase's subject; and the dog is only the agent.
References
- Memidex.com Retrieved 2012-07-24.
- William O' Grady; Michael Dobrovolsky; Mark Aronoff (1997). Contemporary Linguistics. ISBN 0-312-13749-4. - uses "theme" to mean a recipient of an action that changes state, p. 265-66
- A similar distinction is made here: 1.3.2 Predicates and arguments in Basic English Syntax with Exercises (ISBN 9639704709), see also the pop-up glossary for the terms in question
This article may be too technical for most readers to understand Please help improve it to make it understandable to non experts without removing the technical details February 2016 Learn how and when to remove this message In linguistics the grammatical patient also called the target or undergoer is a semantic role representing the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out or the thematic relation such a participant has with an action Sometimes theme and patient are used to mean the same thing When used to mean different things patient describes a receiver that changes state I crushed the car and theme describes something that does not change state I have the car By that definition stative verbs act on themes and dynamic verbs act on patients TheoryTypically the situation is denoted by a sentence the action by a verb in the sentence and the patient by a noun phrase For example in the sentence Jack ate the cheese the cheese is the patient In certain languages the patient is declined for case or otherwise marked to indicate its grammatical role In Japanese for instance the patient is typically affixed with the particle o hiragana を when used with active transitive verbs and the particle ga hiragana が when used with inactive intransitive verbs or adjectives Although Modern English does not mark grammatical role on the noun it uses word order patienthood is represented irregularly in other ways for instance with the morphemes en ed or ee as in eaten used or payee clarification needed The grammatical patient is often confused with the direct object However there is a significant difference The patient is a semantic property defined in terms of the meaning of a phrase but the direct object is a syntactic property defined in terms of the phrase s role in the structure of a sentence For example in the sentence The dog bites the man the man is both the patient and the direct object By contrast in the sentence The man is bitten by the dog which has the same meaning but different grammatical structure the man is still the patient but now stands as the phrase s subject and the dog is only the agent ReferencesMemidex com Retrieved 2012 07 24 William O Grady Michael Dobrovolsky Mark Aronoff 1997 Contemporary Linguistics ISBN 0 312 13749 4 uses theme to mean a recipient of an action that changes state p 265 66 A similar distinction is made here 1 3 2 Predicates and arguments in Basic English Syntax with Exercises ISBN 9639704709 see also the pop up glossary for the terms in question
