5. Semantic syntax: sentence elements semantically considered

Ch. Fillmore introduced semantic syntax in his book "The Case for Case" in 1967.

The syntactic role of the word in speech is determined by several items:

1) its individual lexical meaning;

2) its class meaning;

3) its subclass meaning.

In accordance with its distribution (co-selection / co-occurrence) a word fills in one or another syntactic position and by it acquires certain synt. functional meaning. Between the synt. position of a word and its functional meaning there is an obligatory connection: a word acquires certain functional meaning when it becomes a part of a sentence. But this connection is flexible, because a word may have several functional meanings:

Ex. Ass  1) stubborn

2) Fool

The synt. functional meanings are generalized concepts which denote objective or imaginary typical life situations, what we call proposition.

Syntactic Positions in Primary Functions (Quirk R.)

S V Oin Od Oprep. Apl./t.

S - the most typical function (semantic role) of a S is the agentive participant, i.e. the animate being causing the happening denoted by the verb:

Ex. Sue opened the letter. (She is the doer of the action)

Oin. - its most typical function is that of the recipient participant, i.e. an animate participant that is passively implicated by the happening or state:

Ex. I've found you a taxi. We paid them the money.

Od. - its most typical function is that of the affected participant, i.e. a participant animate or inanimate which does not cause the happening denoted by the verb, but is directly involved in some other way:

Ex. Many MP criticized the Prime Minister. James sold his digital watch yesterday.

But when we create smth. we call this function effected:

Ex. Sue wrote a letter.

Oprep. - its most typical function is that of an instrument, i.e. generally inanimate or material

case of the event:

Ex. Jack opened the door with his key.

Apl. - its function is locative (place): I went there yesterday.

At. - its function is temporal (time): I went there yesterday.

Secondary Functions of Sentence Elements

S - 1) its secondary function is that of an instrument, i.e. the entity (generally inanimate) which

an agent uses to perform an action or instigate a process:

Ex. This key opens the door. A stone broke the glasses. A car knocked them down. The frost killed the flowers (synt. metaphor)

- 2) affected / effected:

Ex. The book was written. The book was given to me.

Jack fell Mown (accidentally) (He is not the doer of the action. He is passively involved in the action)

The road became narrow (= Smb. narrowed the road)

- 3) recipient with such verbs as give, have, own, possess, (benefit from):

Ex. He was given the book. Jack possesses the radio-set.

- 4) locative role of designating the place of the state or action, temporal role of designating its time:

Ex. This path is swarming with ants (Ants are swarming all over this path)

The bus holds forty people (40 people can sit in a bus)

Yesterday was a holiday (It was a holiday yesterday)

The winter of 1997 saw a great storm.

- 5) There are clauses in which no participant is required. In such cases the subject function may be assumed by the 'prop' word it, which has little or no semantic content. It is called empty subject which has no synt. meaning:

Ex. It is snowing. It was nice seeing you.

Od. - locative role with such verbs as walk, swim, pass, jump, turn, leave, reach, surround, cross, climb:

Ex. We walked the streets. (We walked through the streets). The horse jumped the fence. (The horse jumped over the fence)

Oin. - affected role with a few of the verbs that combine with an eventive object. The most

common verb, used in this case is the verb give:

Ex. Give the car a push (Push the car). We gave the baby a bath (We bathed the baby). I paid her a visit (I visited her)

Oprep. - recipient: Ex. The librarian gave the book to me.

- agentive: Ex. He was given the book by the librarian.

Today we say about metaphor that it is cognitive, it reflects our vision of life mostly, but not only feelings. The prepositional function is the naming function of a sentence. The sentence describes the life drama, the event:

Proposition: agentive + action + affected

V give

Agentive Recipient Affected

Sue Jack book

Transformational model has shown that the naming function belongs not only to phrase, but also to syntax. Proposition is the invariant semantic content of a sentence.