‘Adjunct theta-roles’ and the configurational determination of roles

In this paper, I discuss “quasi-argument” thematic roles (Instrument, Benefactive and certain Locations), and argue on the basis of their reconstruction properties and their dependence on event-related features that we should analyze them as generated in the event-related functional projections for VP, rather than in VP itself. This supports an approach to thematic roles as defined relative to syntactic relations, since I argue that the roles in question are not definable in relation to lexically specified verbal predicates.

Published online: 21 February 2007
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.101.19zag