Faculty of Arts and humanities.

Department of English and

Communication
NAME: GODKNOWS NHANGA

LEVEL: 2:2

REG NUMBER: R1916572c

MODULE: BAEH 201 : THEORIES OF LINGUISTICS

LECTURER: DR Mangeya

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ASSIGNMENT QUESTION Study the passage below and identify the highlighted theta role.
Justify your answer in each case:
I’d like this place better if it wasn’t so cold, if it wasn’t so overcrowded and if taxi drivers weren’t
so rude. They say every young professional should work in Joburg, at least at the start of their
career, I never asked why but for me, this is not how I imagined my first year as a qualified
Journalist. I’m not complaining much though because I consider myself lucky. I work for one of the
biggest daily newspapers in the country and I can confidently say that I’m doing pretty well. It’s
the early morning trips from Berea to Auckland Park and the hectic trips back that I’m not sure
about. Two taxi rides in the morning to Bree Taxi Rank where I have to endure long queues and
deafening car hooters. In fact, you aren’t a real taxi commuter if you’ve never witnessed a ‘taxi
fight’ between a driver and a passenger, while inside the taxi. I've witnessed many of those and they
always start with the smallest things, like money that is short or someone banging the door and
sometimes one taking too long to get off the taxi. Forget that they’d be jumping off in a dangerous
spot anyway. But this is Joburg, and everyone came here looking for something, some will find it,
others will lose themselves trying to find it. Me, today, all I'm looking forward to is a warm shower
and my bed. I've had one heck of a day. But first I have to take that dreadful daily trip back to my
flat.

A theta role is the formal device for representing syntactic argument structure.

Basing from the above paragraph, the taxi drivers play a theta role of an agent. The taxi
drivers are the root course of all the actions that could expose the taxi commuters in a
state of boredom, the behaviour that irritates customers. This is manifested through their
way of treating people, this way is not comfortable with the customers, due to their
carelessness and harsh behavior.

Another theta role of an experiencer is outlined through I. This is because the writer is
the person who came across all the tax fights between the taxi drivers and the
passengers.

Joburg's theta role is to express location . Joburg is seen as a place where everything
can be learnt with effective and good results. A person can adapt fast. The notion of
location is further emboldened through the recognition that everyone ought to start his or
her career in joburg, meaning joburg is a place where variant working opportunities
can be accessed. Again, all the struggling in transport sector is witnessed in Joburg.

Tax- rides is a typical example of a theme as a theta role. This is because the writer is
lamenting his day to day movement from home to work. The struggling of long queues
on the bus terminals.

Tax commuters castigates theta role of an experiencer, in the sense that the regular
taxi users are in position the sporadic actions within which the taxi drivers and the
passengers undergoes.
The door represent a theta role of a source. This points out where the commotion can
start between the taxi drivers and the passengers. As the writer assigned that, mostly the
misunderstandings can be attributed from the issue of banging the door. This drives
home the notion that the door is the root course of all the trivial actions and
perceptions between the taxi riders and the tax users.

Others signifies the theta role of benefiary, and maleficiary. This is outlined by the writer
who prostulates that some of the people might be able to archive their needs while
others can not make it. Also, the taxi drivers are benefiting from the payments of the
customers.

Auckland foreshadows the theta role of a recipient. This is where the journey of the
writer ends from Brea.

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