ABSTRACT

First Published in 1997. The purpose of this doctoral study was to address the properties of thematic roles in the context of an event semantics. With specific interest in whether it was possible to show that thematic roles were indispensable objects in compositional semantics, and what a syntax/semantics map which incorporated such objects might look like.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

chapter |26 pages

Events

An Initial Justification

chapter |18 pages

Davidsonian Semantics

chapter |26 pages

Neo-Davidsonian Semantics

chapter |4 pages

Conclusion