The Syntax of Metaphorical Semantic Roles

Abstract

The topic of this paper arose several years ago during a conversation with Chuck Fillmore, whose theory of case grammar brought the study of semantic roles into generative linguistics. When I asked Fillmore what he thought the main problem with case grammar had been, he replied that it was the proliferation of semantic roles, or what were then called ‘deep cases.’ He gave the example of the word through, which expresses the PATH role in sentences like (1) I drove through the tunnel. But in sentences like (2) I got myjob throughmy uncle. through has to have a different semantic role, since “my uncle” does not define a spatial path. This was a problem for the following reason: one of the main attractions of the theory of semantic roles is its use of a very small set of such roles, like Agent, Patient, Source, Path, Goal, and so on. But, Fillmore observed, as one looks at more and more examples, the number of semantic roles seems to proliferate, despite the fact the grammaticalinventory for expressing them is relatively small.