Quick note to thank Johanna for a very nice description of how a
distributional account of valence is aptly augmented by thematic roles
encoding some of the semantics.  Good stuff, Jo,

smile,
rebecca

>
>(2) Rebecca Wheeler's posting lays out the basics of valence grammar
>mostly in terms of structural co-occurrences: how many NPs follow the
>verb, etc. There is another element to valence that brings us even better
>capabilities for doing things like separating 'consider'-type verbs from
>'give' or 'read'-type verbs. This is the notion of 'thematic roles'.. . . .

>If we include thematic roles in sentence analysis, it adds a 'layer':
>
>Sentence:       John    broke   the window      with a hammer
>Structure:      NP      V       NP              PP
>Gram. roles:    Subject         Direct Object   Adverbial
>Them. roles:    Agent           Patient         Instrument
>

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Rebecca S. Wheeler, Ph.D.               office phone:  801-626-6009
Department of English                   office fax:      801-626-7760
1201 University Circle
Weber State University
Ogden, UTah 84408-1201
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