THETAROLE
Theta role
In generative grammar, a theta role or θ-role is the formal device for representing syntactic argument structure required syntactically by a particular verb. For example, the verb put requires three arguments . The formal mechanism for implementing this requirement is based in theta roles. The verb put is said to "assign" three theta roles. This is coded in a theta grid associated with the lexical entry for the verb. The correspondence between the theta grid and the actual sentence is accomplished by means of a bijective filter on the grammar known as the Theta Criterion. Early conceptions of theta ...The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Theta role
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.