[Lingtyp] Semantic role of body parts

[Bohnemeyer, Juergen]

Dear Ian — The figure of motion events is most commonly classified as a theme, which in turn is of course a kind of undergoer. It’s arguably not really a patient since it isn’t causally affected: 

(1) ?What I did to my hand was move it

As to the second part of your question, semantic roles are (defined by) semantic relations between the referents of expressions, in this case between the referents of the verb _move_ and the object NP _my hand_. In English, at least, the fact that  the subject is coreferential with the possessor of the object in (1) has no discernible impact on the behavior of (1). 

It would be interesting to see whether this is different in other languages. Languages with inverse alignment constraints tend to disfavor the use of transitive active voice forms for possessed acting on possessor, as in (2) and (3):

(2) His wife left him
(3) My knee was bothering me

In such languages, inverse voice or some other construction would be used to avoid the constraint violation in (2) and (3). 

Best — Juergen

> On Jun 18, 2020, at 6:39 PM, joo at shh.mpg.de wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> What is the semantic role of the object NP “my hand” in the phrase “I moved my hand”?
> Is it the patient (because it is affected by the agent’s movement) or the agent (because it is the inalienable part of the agent who moves)?
> 
> Regards,
> Ian
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp


-- 
Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies 
Department of Linguistics and Center for Cognitive Science 
University at Buffalo 

Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus
Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260 
Phone: (716) 645 0127 
Fax: (716) 645 3825
Email: jb77 at buffalo.edu
Web: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/ 

Office hours will be held by Skype, WebEx, or phone until further notice. Email me to schedule a call at any time. I will in addition hold Tu 12:30-1:30 and Th 2:30-3:20 open specifically for remote office hours.

There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In 
(Leonard Cohen)