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Thematic Roles and Syntactic Structure

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Elements of Grammar

Part of the book series: Kluwer International Handbooks of Linguistics ((KIHL))

Abstract

One central task for any theory of grammar is to solve the so-called “linking problem”: the problem of discovering regularities in how the participants of an event are expressed in surface grammatical forms and explaining those regularities.

Research for this article was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, grant 410-95-0979, and by FCAR of Quebec, grant 94ERA0578. I have had the opportunity to discuss various issues in this article in a syntax seminar at McGill University and in colloquium talks at the University of Pennsylvania, USC, and the University of California-Irvine. In addition, I have benefited from discussing these issues with Lisa Travis, Nigel Duffield, O. T. Stewart, Miwako Uesako, Hironobu Hosoi, Mika Kizu, and Jim McGilvary. I thank all these people and groups for their valuable input.

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    Mark C. Baker

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Liliane Haegeman

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Baker, M.C. (1997). Thematic Roles and Syntactic Structure. In: Haegeman, L. (eds) Elements of Grammar. Kluwer International Handbooks of Linguistics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5420-8_2

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