Theta criterion

In other words, theta-criterion sorts sentences into grammatical and ungrammatical bins based on c-selection and s-selection.

The number, types and positions of theta-roles that a lexicon assigns is encoded in its lexical entry (Chomsky 1981, p. 38) and must be satisfied in syntactic structure following Projection Principle.

Because there is a one-to-one mapping of argument to theta-role, the theta-criterion is satisfied and the sentence is deemed grammatical (Carnie 2007, p. 225).

The past-tense morpheme then requires a subject at the spec-TP position and forces the movement of "Mary," as shown by (3d).

This is where PRO comes in to help satisfy theta-criterion by appearing as the null subject attaining the appropriate theta role (Camacho 2013).

(Carnie 2012, p. 430) The verb persuade has three theta-roles to assign: "agent" to Jean, "theme" to Brian, and "proposition" to the clause [PRO to leave].

There is no raising, but there is a PRO in the subject position of the embedded clause that takes the verb leave's only theta-role, "agent".

pro, also known as little pro, is an empty category that occurs in a subject or object position of a finite clause (finite clauses must contain a verb which shows tense) in languages like Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and some Arabic dialects (Jaeggli & Safir 1989; Rizzi 1986).

It ultimately satisfies theta-criterion because the role, theme, is taken by a pro, whose existence can be proved by the properly bound reflexive pronoun se stessi.

For example, Such a structure posed a problem for theta-criterion because normally the verb assigns only one theta-role, theme, which is already taken by the DP, "John."

In other words, "die" is now classified as a potentially transitive verb, assigning two theta-roles, agent to "John" and theme to "a gruesome death."

For example, According to Chomsky (1981, p. 104), the constructions in (12) are analogous to "the barbarians destroyed Rome" and destruction needs to assign theta-roles in line with theta-criterion.

Theta-criterion experienced its golden age in the 1980s when people discussed its application to various languages and structures and developed many other theories from it.

However, after the minimalist program challenged some cornerstones of government and binding theory, people started to question the validity of this criterion, especially the number of theta-roles allowed to be taken by an argument.

Hornstein and Boeckx, for example, proposed that there is no upper limit on the number of theta-roles an argument can receive during derivation.

(3c). The underlying representation of "Mary arrived." by a syntactic tree .
(3d). The surface representation of "Mary arrived." by a syntactic tree. "Mary" is projected to the spec-TP position by the extended projection principle triggered by the [+tense] tense morpheme.
(11c) Tree structure of (11a) "John died a gruesome death." The adjunct phrase is highlighted in yellow. Substituting the adjunct DP "a gruesome death" with the adverbial phrase "gruesomely" will derive (11b).