INVESTIGATING THETA ROLE IN THE SINDHI LANGUAGE: IMPLICATION FOR CROSS LINGUISTICS STUDENTS

Abstract

This paper examines theta role assignment in Sindhi in a generative-lexical semantic framework and the consequences that this assignment could have on non-native learners of multilingual Pakistani settings. The study examines the projection of Sindhi Agreement, Case, and postpositional marking of verbs as core roles, including Agent, Theme, Experiencer, Goal, Source, Instrument, Beneficiary and Causer, as opposed to binding word order. Based on the qualitative descriptive and analytical framework, real-like Sindhi sentences were analyzed and data were elicited using 20-30 nonnative university students in terms of translation, sentence-completion tasks, picture-description tasks and questionnaires. The discussion indicates that, although Sindh theta grids are regular, there are flexible SOV/OSV patterns, datives Experiencers, causative hierarchies, and passive constructions, which present enduring interpretive problem of the learners, and give rise to repetitive errors, including dative omission, Experiencer–Agent confusion and misplacement of Theme, Goal and Instrument roles. These error patterns are closely associated with L1-based assumptions (particularly, English and Urdu), excessive use of linear position and insufficient awareness of the semantic functions of the major postposition such as کي, سان, لاءِ, and پاران. The results generalize theta-theoretic and lexical-semantic explanations to an Indo-Aryan language which is under documented and empirically relate the properties of formal argument-structure with actual performance of learners. It is based on this that the study suggests a linguistically based pedagogical framework that combines explicit teaching of theta-role instruction, postposition practice, contrastive Sindhi-English exercises, visual mapping of verb-argument relationships, and error based learning to positively influence the learning of more native learners to speak Sindhi.