Dowty (1991): Thematic proto-roles and argument selection #
Dowty replaces thematic roles by two cluster concepts, the Proto-Agent and the Proto-Patient,
each a list of five entailments a predicate may impose on an argument, (27) and (28). The
Argument Selection Principle (31) lexicalizes as subject the argument with the most
Proto-Agent entailments and as direct object the one with the most Proto-Patient entailments.
Every argument profile here is read off a row of Data/Examples/Dowty1991.json, from the
single-entailment exemplars of (29) and (30) to the three verb classes of (64).
Main results #
cruse_volitive_is_volition_alone: Dowty's exemplar of volition alone is Cruse's volitive doer.alternates_iff,hierarchies: Corollary 1 is the failure of (31) to select either way, and the role hierarchies of (36) follow from the principle.primary_transitives,buy_sell,psych_doublet: the primary transitive verbs of (35) are selected outright, while buy and sell and like and please tie.directObjectOver_of_changeOfState,three_classes: a change of state entailed for one nonsubject argument alone fixes it as direct object, so of the three classes of (64) only the break class does not alternate.intransClass_unergative,intransClass_unaccusative: the pure cells of Table 1.primary_transitives_match_templates: the substrate's class templates agree with the paper's attributions, save at two deliberate divergences.
Implementation notes #
A row attributes some entailments to its argument and denies others; the profiles agreeing with
it form the interval between the two, and the profile the principle compares is the bottom of that
interval, so counts are of stated entailments; the parenthesized (27e) and (28e) count like the
others. Outranks reads the Proto-Agent clause of (31) first and lets the
Proto-Patient clause decide ties, and "approximately equal" in the corollaries is read as equal.
The incremental theme homomorphism of §6 and the material of §11 are not represented.
References #
What a row attributes #
The entailments by their paperFeatures labels.
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- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
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The entailments a row attributes to its argument.
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- Dowty1991.entailed e = (List.filterMap (fun (x : String) => List.lookup x Dowty1991.featureLabels) (e.features "entails")).toFinset
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The entailments a row denies of its argument.
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- Dowty1991.denied e = (List.filterMap (fun (x : String) => List.lookup x Dowty1991.featureLabels) (e.features "denies")).toFinset
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Every attribution names one of the ten entailments.
No row both attributes and denies an entailment.
A profile agrees with a row when it imposes every entailment the row attributes and none it denies, so that the profiles agreeing with a row form an interval; what the row leaves open is unconstrained.
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- Dowty1991.Matches e p = (p ∈ Set.Icc (Dowty1991.entailed e) (Dowty1991.denied e)ᶜ)
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- Dowty1991.instDecidableMatches e p = { decide := decide (Dowty1991.entailed e ⊆ p) && decide (p ⊆ (Dowty1991.denied e)ᶜ), reflects_decide := ⋯ }
Dowty's exemplar of volition alone (29a) is Cruse's (32), and the two analyses agree on it: Dowty attributes volition alone to its subject, and Cruse the volitive alone.
The selection principle and its corollaries, (31) to (34) #
By the selection principle (31), p is lexicalized as subject over q when it has strictly
more Proto-Agent entailments, or as many and strictly fewer Proto-Patient entailments.
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- Dowty1991.Outranks p q = (q.protoAgent.card < p.protoAgent.card ∨ p.protoAgent.card = q.protoAgent.card ∧ p.protoPatient.card < q.protoPatient.card)
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Two arguments with equal counts may be lexicalized either way, Corollary 1 (32).
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- Dowty1991.Alternates p q = (p.protoAgent.card = q.protoAgent.card ∧ p.protoPatient.card = q.protoPatient.card)
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Of two nonsubject arguments, the one with more Proto-Patient entailments is lexicalized as direct object and the other as oblique, Corollary 2 (33).
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- Dowty1991.DirectObjectOver p q = (q.protoPatient.card < p.protoPatient.card)
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Two nonsubject arguments with equal Proto-Patient counts may either be direct object (33).
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- Dowty1991.EitherObject p q = (p.protoPatient.card = q.protoPatient.card)
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- Dowty1991.instDecidableOutranks p q = id inferInstance
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- Dowty1991.instDecidableAlternates p q = id inferInstance
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- Dowty1991.instDecidableDirectObjectOver p q = id inferInstance
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- Dowty1991.instDecidableEitherObject p q = id inferInstance
Corollary 1 is exactly the failure of (31) to select either way.
The principle does not select uniquely (34): a profile ties with itself, so a relation lexicalized twice with the arguments swapped is licensed.
One Proto-Agent entailment against none qualifies an argument for subject (§8.2).
The hierarchies of (36) fall out of the principle over the canonical role profiles: Agent over Instrument, Instrument and Experiencer over Patient, and Patient over Goal for direct object.
The stable case and the ties, (35) and §8.3 #
In the primary transitive verbs of (35) a subject with four Proto-Agent entailments and no Proto-Patient entailment faces an object with the reverse, and (31) selects outright.
By Corollary 2, the theme of put and remove, changed and affected, outranks the stationary goal or source for direct object (§8.2).
Buyer and seller are both volitional and otherwise alike, so buy and sell are licensed as a doublet (§3.2, §8.3).
The experiencer is sentient and the stimulus causal, one Proto-Agent entailment each, so like and please tie (38).
Under the inchoative interpretation the experiencer undergoes a change of state, the Proto-Patient entailment that selects the stimulus as subject, which is Croft's generalization that only stimulus-subject psych verbs take the inchoative reading (§9.2).
Partially symmetric interactive predicates, §9.1 #
The subject of kiss, entailed volitional.
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The object of kiss, not entailed volitional.
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Volition, entailed for the subject alone, selects it, (43); with symmetric volition the collective subject of (42) is a tie.
The entailment distinguishing the subject of collide from its oblique is motion, not volition (45).
Alternations in direct versus oblique objects, §9.3 and (64) #
Two nonsubject arguments agree on the change-of-state entailment.
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- Dowty1991.instDecidableCosSymmetric p q = id inferInstance
A change of state entailed for one nonsubject argument but not the other, the remaining Proto-Patient entailments being equal, fixes it as direct object (§9.3.3).
Nonsubject arguments alike in the change-of-state entailment and the rest may either be direct object.
The hay and the truck of (49), (64 I), which both change state.
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The fence and the stick of (63), (64 II), of which only the direct object changes state.
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The fence and the stick of (62), (64 III), neither of which changes state or measures the event.
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The spray/load class alternates, the break class fixes its direct object, and the hit class alternates with complete synonymy (64).
In the hit class puzzle the instrument moves, a Proto-Agent entailment the principle leaves out of object selection (§9.3.3).
The unaccusative hypothesis, §12 #
The three cases of Table 1, the two pure cells and the two mixed cells that vary across languages.
- unergative : IntransClass
- unaccusative : IntransClass
- unstable : IntransClass
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- Dowty1991.instDecidableEqIntransClass x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
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- Dowty1991.instReprIntransClass = { reprPrec := Dowty1991.instReprIntransClass.repr }
Table 1 crosses agentivity with telicity.
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- Dowty1991.table1 true false = Dowty1991.IntransClass.unergative
- Dowty1991.table1 false true = Dowty1991.IntransClass.unaccusative
- Dowty1991.table1 x✝¹ x✝ = Dowty1991.IntransClass.unstable
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The most important Proto-Agent entailment for the contrast: volition.
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The most important Proto-Patient property for the contrast: an incremental or holistic theme, that is, telicity.
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- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
The class Table 1 assigns to an intransitive by its sole argument's profile.
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- Dowty1991.intransClass p = Dowty1991.table1 (decide (Dowty1991.Agentive p)) (decide (Dowty1991.Telic p))
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Predicates high in agentivity and low in patient properties are invariably unergative.
Predicates low in agentivity and high in patient properties are invariably unaccusative.
run is unergative and die and arrive unaccusative, from the substrate's class profiles.
The substrate's templates against the paper's attributions #
The (35) attributions hold of the accomplishment templates and the creation and consumption objects.
The hit class attributions, (64 III), hold of the contacted object template.
The single-entailment exemplars of (29) and (30) land in the perception and desire templates.
The psych-state and desire templates split as the paper does: the like experiencer is sentient, (38), and the need subject entails existence but none of (27a) to (27d).
The creation template omits (28d), which "all of 28" for the object of build includes: the template follows the (35) hedge that creation objects are only mostly stationary.
The accomplishment object template carries no incremental themehood, which (64 II) attributes to the object of break; the template adds it per verb.
(30e) counts destruction as dependent existence, which the paper never states for the object of eat: the row leaves it open, so the consumption template and its extension by dependent existence both agree with it.