Action: agent vs participant vs object

Hi,

I keep reviewing examples of Action subtypes, IMO some of them use
agent, participant and object in possibly deceiving way. According to
definitions:

* agent - The direct performer or driver of the action (animate or
inanimate). e.g. *John* wrote a book.
* particpant - Other co-agents that participated in the action
indirectly. e.g. John wrote a book with *Steve*.
* object - The object upon the action is carried out, whose state is
kept intact or changed. Also known as the semantic roles patient,
affected or undergoer (which change their state) or theme (which
doesn't). e.g. John read *a book*.

I consider description of participant already including ambiguous
example. If John and Steve wrote book together I would see both of them
as agent in this action.

More examples follows

* John and Steve agreed with a scholar paper claiming that P = NP!.
* John and Steve disagreed with a scholar paper claiming that P = NP!,
resulting in another scholar paper claiming that P is in fact !=       NP!.
* John and Steve dislike an article.
* John and Steve like an article.
* John and Steve want an ipod.
* John and Steve reviewed an article.
* John travel from the US to Brazil with Steve.
* John planned an exercise plan with Steve.
* John ran 100 miles with Steve.

All of those examples use agent: John, participant: Steve

I think at least in some if not most of cases above *both* John and
Steve could act as agent! We could at least provide some examples with
multiple agents and multiple objects. Otherwise one can get impression
that agent has cardinality equal to one. For multiple agents we can just
convert some of examples from list above.

For multiple objects I could write an example like:
* John took photo of Jane, Steve and Alice

Does it sound reasonable?

Received on Monday, 20 October 2014 23:51:02 UTC