LGER0087-1 English Linguistics II (An Van linden)

Exercises on Chapter 1: Event schemas and semantic roles

What type of event schema is illustrated by the underlined clauses? Motivate your answer, including
reference to thematic roles. How does the event schema map onto clause/construction type, and how do
its thematic roles map onto grammatical roles? Use square brackets to indicate the constituents under
analysis, e.g. [I] [saw] [the children].

(1) After brief sleep, Kerry started the morning at 7: 40 a.m. with an emotional visit with about 250
cheering supporters at canvassing headquarters in La Crosse, Wis. “I’m counting on you. Today
... we’re linking hearts and hands and we’re going to take America back to a better place,” he
told them. “I want to thank you.” (WB)
(2) The kids got me thinking. I saw that my options would change if I did a degree. I’d seen it within
my own family. Again, as had been preordained, my cousin Les had gone on to become a doctor
of physics and chemistry. That night I began to think I might be able to carve out a career. I
thought I might be able to become a teacher, or a social worker. I was sick of doing all the rotten
jobs I’d been doing, that was for sure. (WB)
(3) Monsignor David Cassato – a police chaplain whom Tim Lambert said he told about the abuse
in the early ’70s - told The Post he recalled Lambert saying there was “inappropriate behavior
between him and Father Byrns.” Cassato said he told the parish pastor about it at the time. The
Post would like to hear from readers with information about alleged sexual abuse by
clergy.(WB)
(4) Hill plans to honour the final year of his contract with the Storm next season and would like to
finish his career at the club. However the Kangaroos lock said he would consider leaving the
southern state if things did not improve under a new coach next year. Glenn Lazarus has been
mentioned as new coach. There’s no doubt he’d get plenty of trust just on what he’s done in his
playing career. (WB) [lock: ‘(in rugby) a player in the second row of the scrum’]
(5) He made a perfect dismount and the crowd booed lustily when his score of 9.412 was
announced. “I didn’t do the full difficulty, that’s why the score wasn’t as high as people thought
it should be,” he said. “But I stuck the dismount, we all did, and that (…) got us the medal.” As
the Americans were waiting to do the high-bar routine, Romanian Razvan Selariu fell from the
bar. (WB)
(6) It meant a lot to me after being out injured for more than three months. I had bruising in my
knee and it wasn’t clearing up. I got to the stage where I was trying to play through the pain and
put it to the back of my mind. But deep down I knew it was getting worse with every game. It
became a vicious circle. If I hadn’t held my hands up and stopped playing when I did it would
have got a lot worse. (WB)
(7) The two shared a flat with three other girls in the leafy suburb where Lily’s library was situated.
The flat was one of about twelve in a large Victorian house which used to be a family home.
There was a pretty, communal garden at the back though there were many peculiarly shaped
rooms where the developers had squeezed extra walls in. Lily had a trapezoidal bedroom. Sarah
had a wonderful bone structure. (WB)
(8) Indeed, just such metaphoric illness was the basis of part of what Cayce called karma in the
physical dimension. One reading told a man that his asthma (which almost suffocated him) was
set up by his squeezing the life out of others in a prior existence. The implication was that how
we pressed ourselves and others, or how we invested ourselves, shaped our health as truly as
what we discharged or ate. (WB)