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Glite Dictionary
agentive role

agentive role

9.3
The person or animal that makes the action happen in a sentence
  • noun
  • /ˈeɪdʒəntɪv roʊl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : rol agencial
  • The children have an active, agentive role not just in producing food but also in receiving and distributing it, though this has received far less attention in the literature.

Examples

  • In her novel, the protagonist's agentive role drives the story forward as she makes pivotal decisions that influence the plot.

  • In the sentence 'The teacher praised the students for taking an agentive role in the project,' the students actively contributed to its success.

  • The lion plays an agentive role in the ecosystem as a top predator and helps maintain the balance of species.

Synonyms

agent
vsagentive role
  • Specialized
31 7.0

A living thing that causes or performs the action in a sentence

has identical meaning but uses a longer noun phrase instead of the shorter term

Surface Forms

agentive role singular
agentive roles plural

Morphology

agentive + role

The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'agentive' (pertaining to the agent or performer of an action) with 'role' (function or position), yielding 'the role of the agent' in a clause. Although somewhat technical vocabulary, the composition is compositional and cross-linguistically regular, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The term agentive role names the idea of agent, the 'doer', plus role, a 'part' in a play; imagine an actor who pushes a button and makes a scene begin. That's why agentive role means the person or thing in a sentence that 'starts or causes the action'.