Modularity in a Configurational Theta Theory

Abstract

Abstract The event structures expressed by sentences consist of relations among subevents and their participant roles, called thematic roles or relations. We will say that a theory of the thematic structure of sentences is strictly configurational if every thematic role distinction is represented by a configurationally distinct position in this structure. Strict Thematic Configurationality therefore implies an isomorphism between thematic relations and equivalence classes of positions in syntactic structures. Thus, given this principle, thematic or event-structural aspects of semantics must be purely syntactic. More specifically, meaning or interpretation in respect to these aspects must be a function of category type (functional properties) and configuration (purely formal structural/syntactic relations) only. There can be no representation of thematic relations as substantive categories or features. The syntactic forms representing thematic structure may or may not be identified with those of a component of grammatical syntax. However, a minimalist conception of Strict Thematic Configurationality would seem to require that they are: that there is no autonomous system of thematic relations apart from grammatical syntax.