Syntactic realization of thematic roles

Author: Gao Mingle
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Based on a comparison between English and Chinese, this book examines the relationship between the semantic features of Chinese verbs and their syntactic structures, as well as the influence of verb semantics on syntactic structures. It reveals the semantic and pragmatic constraints underlying syntax and provides a dynamic formal description of the interactive constraints among syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, as well as the linking constraints between thematic roles and syntactic arguments. The mapping relationship between the thematic roles embedded in verb semantics and syntactic arguments has always been one of the key topics explored in lexicalist grammar. Based on a comparison between English and Chinese, this book examines the relationship between the semantic features of Chinese verbs and their syntactic structures, as well as the influence of verb semantics on syntactic structures. It discovers the linking constraints between thematic roles and syntactic arguments, thereby establishing the lexical semantic expressions of Chinese verbs and the static linking patterns between thematic roles and syntactic arguments. Building on the static linking patterns, the book focuses on the role of pragmatic factors in constraining the mapping from thematic roles to syntactic arguments, revealing the semantic and pragmatic constraints underlying syntax. This approach integrates syntax, semantics, and pragmatics into the feature structures of HPSG, providing a dynamic formal description of the interactive constraints among these three aspects and the linking constraints between thematic roles and syntactic arguments. It is hoped that the interactive model of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics established in this book will provide pragmatic constraint information to support the computer's recognition of Chinese discourse sentences.