So, the theta grid for rain really looks like this:.

It is not a participant in the event it really can’t be getting a q-role.

If we think about it, it doesn’t really mean anything at all.

With the Theta Criterion in our toolbox, let’s take a look at a special kind of sentence (which will turn out to tell us something important about syntax).

There are one arguments here, and it gets a q-role.

Fine, coughassigns one q-role (the external q-role), to Bill.

*Billi pushed the shopping cartj the corner?.

There are two arguments here, each gets a q-role.

Fine, pushassigns two q-roles, one (the external q-role) is assigned to Bill, the other (the internal q-role) is assigned to the shopping cart.

Adjuncts are related to the verb via thematic relations (e.g., instrument, location, etc.), but an adjunct does not get a q-role.

(Optional things like on the hill are not in the q-grid).

The q-roles in the theta grid are obligatory.

It is often designated by underlining it.

The first q-role is assigned to the subject. The columns each represent a q-role, the indices in the lower row will serve as our connection to the actual arguments e.g.We can formalize the information about q-roles in the lexical entry for a verb by using a theta grid, like so:.For now, let’s just suppose that DPs and CPs are necessarily arguments, and PPs usually aren’t. There are some further concepts that we should have before we can even start to state this accurately. But it’s hard to evaluate this if we don’t know what an argument is. The second half protects us against superfluous arguments.

every argument is assigned exactly one q-role.every q-role in the q-grid is assigned to exactly one argument.

Proposition: a statement, can be true/false.Bill gave the book to Mary.(Recipient).Experiencer: feel or perceive the event.Theme: affected by the event, or undergoes the action.As part of their lexical entry, verbs have a list of q-roles that they assign, a list of required participants.These are the “roles” that the participant play in the event. We were talking about q-roles, the “argument slots” that predicates (e.g., verbs) have.Case and checking (with a little more q-Theory)

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