A comparative study of the application of theta theory in Urdu and English languages

Abstract

The work is intended to study the argument structures of Urdu and English verbs to bring out the basic difference, if any, between these two languages in this regard. It explains why such a study is necessary. It begins with a theoretical discussion on what has already been done within the framework of Principles and Parameters theory and the Minimalist Program. It cusses theta roles required by verbs in Urdu and English and compares them to find out the ways in which they are similar to or different from each other. The First Chapter deals with some theoretical issues that led to the volution of the theta theory within the principles and parameters theory Chomsky 1981). It discusses the significance of theta theory for the ellformedness and semantic interpretation of a sentence. It discusses briefly the crucial justification for thematic relations given by Gruber (1976, (originally 1965)) which was followed by Jackendoff’s conceptual approach to the thematic relations (1990). Further it has discussed how Chomsky’s concept of thematic structure is different from Jackendoff’s conceptual structure. It argues that Chomsky’s theta theory offers a more satisfactory solution than Jackendoff’s in so far as the hematic structures of sentences of natural languages are concerned. The theta criterion which is an important component of theta theory has been discussed in details. It retains its significance even in the Minimalist Program which questions almost every assumption of Principles and Parameters theory. Chomsky notices that Theta roles are a fundamental property of grammar and their proper assignment to the arguments is necessary to satisfy the principle of Full Interpretation (FI); otherwise a derivation gets crashed. The chapter presents the aims and objectives of this work and argues that the comparative study of the thematic structures in Urdu and English is essential to understand the problem faced by the native speakers of Urdu learning English as a second language. The Second Chapter contains detail of the possible theta roles of Urdu and English verbs. It assumes the hypothesis that verbs of similar semantic types in different languages have similar argument structures at LF but all of them are not expressed the same way at PF.