The Concept of Thematic Roles

2 Patient The thematic role has Patient. It means the entity undergoing the effect of action, often undergoing some change in state. The Patient appears as the object related to the transitive verb because intransitive verb does not need the object. Furthermore, it can be applied in subject of sentence in passive voice structure. Thus, the using of verb in passivation or activation can influence the determination of Patient in thematic roles. 16 4 Enda cut back these bushes. 5 The sun melted the ice. The sentences above show that these bushes and the ice are the object which is the entity undergoing the effect of action. They described by the verb cut back and melt. So, they can be called Patient. 17 3 Theme The thematic roles has Theme. It means the entity which is moved by an action, or whose location is described. The determination of Theme is not depend on the syntactic features but based on semantic relation. The semantic relation in sentence can be examine the object or the subject. 18 6 Roberto Passed the ball wide 16 Ibid 17 Ibid 18 Ibid 7 The book is in the library The sentences above shows the ball and the book as the participants. The ball can be classified as the Theme because it has the movement of action. Furthermore, the book can be classified as the entity whose location is described and the ball can be classified as the entity which is moved by an action. 19 4 Experiencer The Experiencer is an entity which has role to the action but which is not in control the action or state. based on Saeed‟s approach of Thematic roles, it has the similar meaning with Agent which also has a role for controlling the action. The Agent and Experiencer often perform as subject in sentence. 8 Amora saw the kites festival 9 Amora cut the paper The example of sentences has different meaning of verbs. The sentence 8 has the entity to look at the things without doing anything. In contrast, the sentence 9 shows the entity which described an action of entity Amora. The verb 9 need an actor to doing action. Thus, Saeed explains the Experiencer has an action as verb but it can not be an actor. 19 Ibid 5 Beneficiary The beneficiary is the entity of thematic roles which has benefacted things in sentence. Syntactically, It is build by noun phrase and pronoun as direct obejct. The beneficiary has the verb which is related to giving other things through the action. 10 They baked me a cake The sentence above explains that the entity me is the one who accept the action which has benefit to pronoun me. It can be happen in another sentence with the predicates. The predicates often the transitive verbs. 6 Instrument The instrument of thematic roles is the tool of action which is needed. The instrument appears in preposition phrase. There are examples of Instrument in sentence. 20 11 She cleaned the wound with an antiseptic wipe The sentence describes that the entity with an antiseptic wipe shows by which the action clean is perfomed. Syntactically, the entity with an antiseptic wipe is an preposition phrase of complement in sentence. 20 Ibid. p. 150 7 Location The location is the entity which describe where the action happen. The location can be identified by the using of preposition phrase. The example sentence shows the Location. 21 12 The monster was hiding under the bed. The sentence described the bold words as the location of sentence. it can be identify from the meaning of preposition under which has directed to the location of action hide. Thus, the location can be identified by preposition verb but it has to build by the meaning of place where the action happens. 8 Goal The thematic roles has Goal to identify the meaning of purpose in sentence semantics. 22 The Goal can be described by the preposition phrase for or to such the sentence below. 13 Sheila handed the license to the policeman The sentence above shows the purposes object of action. The goal described by the policeman which has to accept the object the license. The policeman can be called the Goal of sentence 13. 21 Ibid 22 Ibid 9 Source The source of thematic roles is the entity from which something moves either literally or metaphorically. 14 The plane came back from Kinshahsa There is the preposition phrase from Kinshasha. It directs to the performs of sources described by the action came back. Thus, the effect of goal in sentence can be predicted by the preposition phrase in meaning of source.

C. Grammatical Relation and Thematic Role

Every sentence has their meaning syntactically and semantically. The relation of grammar in sentence is called the grammatical relation. It determines the sentence with the function of words in sentence. Then, the relation of sentence meaning is called semantic relation or thematic roles. “we outline the main contenders for individual types of roles and grammatical relation, and discuss the idea that verbs must have their thematic role requirements listed in the lexicon” 23 Saeed stated that there is relation between the roles and verbs. He explains that the important of roles is require the verbs to be analysed. The following sentence will describe it clearly. 15 Jane is waiting for the school bus 23 Ibid. p. 149 The grammatical relation shows that Jane as noun, is waiting as verb phrase, and for the school bus is prepositional phrase. It can be concluded that Jane is subject of sentence, is waiting is predicate, and for the school bus is the complement of sentence. The semantic relation describes that Jane is Agent of verb wait, for the school bus is the Goal of sentence. it can be predicted by a number of tests to identify thematic roles by Saeed. 24 He suggested to added phrases like deliberately, on purpose, in order to in sentence to determine the Agent in sentence. This proves that the agent shows the animacy and volition. 16 David received the car The sentence 2 has different meaning in semantic relation with sentence 1. The sentence 1 shows that jane is doing something that have purposes. In contrast, the action can not make the David is the agent because the action is not related to the violition of action. 17 Jane threw the ball in order to give her friend 18 David received the car on purpose celebrate his birthday ? The sentence 3 and 4 has different meaning after the test of thematic roles. Clearly, sentence 2 shows that Jane has a purpose of volition an action but the sentence 4 does not show it. The agent can be classified as actor or not based on the predicate. The participant which 24 Ibid performs, effects and instigate or control the situation can be classified as Actor. So, the Agent in sentence 1 is clearly the actor. The test is not only available for the agent of sentence but also to the patient of sentence. by making frame of questions, Saeed test the perform of patient. 25 19 What did X do? 20 a. What happened to Y was... b. What X did to Y was... The question of frame above is the suggestion of determining and testing the agent and patient in sentence. 21 Jane threw the ball 22 What Jane did was to throw the ball 23 a. What happened to the ball was that Jane threw it b. What Jane did to the ball was throw it The test above shows that Jane is the agent and the ball is the patient of sentence. In conclusion, using this test which suggested by Saeed, the writer will determine the thematic roles in opinion article „What Ever Happened in Kraras, Timor Leste „Pak‟ Prabowo?‟ and identify the function of each thematic roles in sentences of that article. 25 Ibid. p.151