The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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(54) a. “Dan was bored [cause], so he decided to see a film.”
b. “Nili watched a black-and-white film, and then she got bored [enable].”
In (54a) motivate is associated with the cause event, whereas in (54b) with the
enable event. 34
As is clear from the above examples, each event in a narrative is expressed by a
full sentence. The question of interest for the evolution of the Theta System is the
following: How are these relations coded in the outputs of the CS, namely in a single
sentence?
Reinhart (2000) proposes that a /+c feature is associated with a role perceived as
a sufficient condition (cause). The range of /+c roles, [+c+m], [+c-m], [+c], is
exemplified in (55):
(55) a. ha-se’ara [+c] harsa et ha-sira [-c-m]
the-storm destroyed Acc the-boat
b. dina [+c+m] kilfa et ha-tapu’ax [-c-m]
Dina peeled Acc the-apple
c. ha-sakin [+c-m] kilef et ha-tapu’ax [-c-m]
the-knife peeled Acc the-apple
The feature /+m is associated with some mental state of the participant/s.
Similarly to the relation motivate it does not determine the causal status of the
argument it is associated with. Thus in (55b) /+m is part of the [+c+m] theta-role
(Agent), namely one of the roles perceived as cause, whereas in (56) it is part of
[-c+m] role:
(56) dvar-av šel dan [+c] he’elivu et rina [-c+m]
words-his of Dan insulted Acc Rina
“Dan’s words insulted Rina.”
Enable does not correspond to any particular feature, but rather is typically
associated with internal arguments. In other words, any selected argument can be
34 It is worth noting that as opposed to causality which seems to be rooted in the human conceptual
structure, independently of language, the status of motivate is less fundamental.