Abstract
This chapter explores what needs to be said about argument structure to capture the facts of Amharic, a Semitic language of Ethiopia (Leslau, 1995). In addition to specifying the number of arguments, types of arguments, and the ordering of those arguments on a thematic hierarchy, Amharic distinguishes between what is called oblique arguments and direct arguments. This discussion establishes that the familiar arguably universal association between thematic roles and syntactic structure holds in Amharic. Therefore the two analysis fragments need to be combined cautiously. The next question is whether the oblique-direct distinction is something particular to Amharic, or whether it is universal, present in all languages. First impressions suggest that it is not universal: there seems to be no comparable distinction in the Bantu languages. Keywords: Amharic; argument structure
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