Re: Theta roles

From:    Chris Wright <dhasenan@...>
> I'm doing a bit of research on multiple WH questions in English, and
> theta roles come into prime concern. I've covered Agent, Theme, Goal,
> Source, Beneficiary, Maleficiary, Experiencer, and Instrument. Is
> anything else left?
As I think we discussed some time back on this list, there is no
real agreement on the appropriate number of thematic roles.  The
most popular numbers/ranges seem to be two, three, four, five to
eight, and indefinitely many (on the grounds that every eating
verb has an eater and eaten, but not, say, a jumper, or a singer).

I just wrote a paper on wh-phenomena in Georgian, specifically
discussing my research on multiple wh-constructions and superiority
effects, so if you're interested I'd be happy to send it to you,
or anyone else.

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