Abstract Although they may call them case roles, participant roles, thematic roles (8-roles), thematic relations, proto-roles, or role archetypes, most current theories of grammar have some account of semantic roles and their relation to syntax. As Newmeyer (1986: 106) notes: ‘Fillmore and the case grammarians deserve credit for impressing upon the linguistic community the importance of these roles.’ Further, in all discussions of the ‘semantic side’ of grammar, beginning with Fillmore 1968 and Gruber 1965, ‘agent’ plays a central part. Since virtually every theory which incorporates a thematic-relations component invokes this role, its status as one of the vital elements in linguistic theory and description has gone largely unchallenged.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 327 citations exist upstream.