Case Roles: The arguments or typical roles that a predicate can take; they will appear as properties of events in the TMR.
1. Agent - the entity that causes or is responsible for an action. (the subject in a transitive sentence is often, but not always, the agent)
Kathy [agent] ran to the store [destination].
Joey [agent] ate the cookie [theme].
Du Pont Co. [agent] said it agreed to form a joint venture in gas separation technology with L'Air Liquide S.A., an industrial gas company based in Paris.
2. Theme - the entity whose state or location is being described, or whose state is affected by an action (direct object of an action; subject in an intransitive sentence).
John [agent] kicked the ball [theme].
The price [theme] is high.
The ball [theme] rolled down the hill [path].
Bridgestone Sports Co. has set up a company [theme] in Taiwan with a local concern and a Japanese trading house.
3. Experiencer - the entity that undergoes psychological experience (perception, cognition); (e.g., passive role in involuntary perceptual event)
I [experiencer] realized that . . .
John [experiencer] heard the music [theme]. (vs. John [agent] listened to the music [theme].
However, recently the natural rubber market [experiencer] has experienced a slump and is at 60 percent of production capacity.
4. Beneficiary - the entity that benefits from an action
I [agent] did it [theme] for Mary [beneficiary].
Cindy [agent] lent me [beneficiary? or destination?] some money [theme].
The venture, which is contingent on a definitive agreement, intends to develop, manufacture and market equipment based on polymeric membrane technology and in some instances perform the gas separation for customers [beneficiary].
Issue: Should beneficiary be used only as a "circumstantial" role, leaving source and destination to handle verbs of transfer (give to, buy from, etc.). See more examples under 6 and 7 below.
5. Source - conceptual places where various types of movement and transfer start (used for direction in verbs of motion)
The goods [theme] will be shipped from Japan [source].
Susan [agent] bought the book from Jane [source].
BROKEN HILL PROPRIETARY CO., Australia's biggest company, said it soon will receive 133 million Australian dollars ($94.7 million) from the sale [source] of domestic assets.
7. Destination - an endpoint for actions & processes involving change of location, transfer.
John [agent] took his mother [theme] to the theater [destination].
Jill [agent] went to the store [destination].
Cindy [agent] brought the money to me [destination]
Hilda [agent] gave John [destination] a present [theme].
Bridgestone Sports Co. said Friday it has set up a joint venture in Taiwan with a local concern and a Japanese trading house to produce golf clubs to be shipped to Japan [destination].
Issue: For verbs of transfer (buy, sell, give, take, exchange, lend, borrow, etc.), other roles are sometimes used, such as beneficiary, or recipient. I suggest that source/destination can be used to cover verbs of transfer as well as verbs of motion. Note that "Hilda" may also be regarded as a source, as well as an agent. I prefer to ignore this conflation, but it may be relevant for languages other than English.
8. Location - the place where an event takes place or where an object exists.
The milk [theme] is in the refrigerator [location].
The play [theme] will be performed at the Shakespeare Theater [location].
Kawasaki Steel intends to secure a stable supply of ferrosilicon by producing the material in Brazil [location] where power rate is less than one-third of that of Japan [location].
Note: Location can be both a case role and a circumstantial role, in that any event can take place at a location and at a time. However, some predicates require that a location be expressed, as in the first example above.
9. Path - the route along which an entity (i.e., a theme) travels
Mary [agent/theme] ran down the hill [path].
The train [theme] traveled along the track [path].
The plane [theme] took the polar route [path] from Korea [source] to Chicago [destination].
Issue: Role conflation: "Mary" is both the agent and the theme of "ran".
10. Co-theme - an entity whose state is described in relation to another.
John [theme] is a lawyer [co-theme].
Co-theme is used together with theme to represent events such as: `designate X as Y', `christen X as Y', `name X as Y', `mark X as Y', `sell X as Y', `pronounce X as Y', `dub X as Y', and `elect X as Y'.
11. Accompanier - an entity which joins the agent in the event, but is not the initiator of the event.
John [agent] went with Mary [accompanier].
Kawasaki Steel Corp. has agreed with Mitsubishi Corp.[accompanier] and Cia Vale Do Rio Doce [accompanier], Brazil's state-run mining corporation, to set up a joint venture in Minas Gerais State in Brazil possibly this summer to produce ferrosilicon, reported Nikkan Kogyo. 12. Degree - the extent to which something occurs or is done.
The development of joint products [theme] by the nonlife insurance industry and the securities companies [agents] is expanding a step [degree].
13. Purpose - a goal; the reason for which something is done.
Nomura Shoken and Credit 109 [agents] have tied up to issue the "Nomura Tokyu Top Card" [purpose].
Dresser Industries Inc. and Komatsu Ltd. of Japan said they signed a memorandum of understanding *to join their construction equipment businesses in North, Central and South America* [purpose].
14. Means - the method or way in which something is accomplished.
Armco [agent] will establish a new company [theme] by spinning off its general steel department [means].
The venture, which is contingent on a definitive agreement, intends to develop, manufacture and market equipment based on polymeric membrane technology and in some instances perform the gas separation for customers [beneficiary].
15. Manner - the style in which something is done.
Fujitsu and Telecom [agents] will jointly [manner] set up Information Switching
Technology [theme].
1. Location (see above, under case roles, no. 8)
2. Time - the time at which an event takes place
John [agent] ate dinner at five o'clock [time].
Bridgestone Sports Co. said Friday [time] it has set up a joint venture in Taiwan with a local concern and a Japanese trading house to produce golf clubs to be shipped to Japan.
Other tentative circumstantial roles that have been suggested in previous work are listed below.
For now, I just list them, but we need to define/refine them as examples arise:
condition, cause, effect, result
mode
quantity, quality