actor–action–goal

A phrase used in the GRAMMATICAL and SEMANTIC analysis of SENTENCE patterns, to characterize the typical sequence of FUNCTIONS within STATEMENTS in many languages. In the sentence John saw a duck, for example, John is the actor, saw the action, and a duck the GOAL. On the other hand, languages display several other ‘favorite’ sequences, such as Welsh, where the UNMARKED sequence is action–actor–goal. The phrase is widely used, but not without criticism, as the semantic implications of terms such as ‘actor’ do not always coincide with the grammatical facts, e.g. in The stone moved, the SUBJECT of the sentence is hardly an ‘actor’ in the same sense as John is above.