Some linguists define the patient and affected semantic roles in slightly different ways.

Longacre 1983 155–156 (following Chafe) defines a patient as the entity:

• predicated with a state or location
• undergoing a change of state or location, or
• which is possessed, acquired or exchanged.

Larson 1984 199–203 defines the affected role as the:

• thing that is affected by an event
• person or thing that undergoes a process, or
• person who experiences an event.

(Longacre 1983)

• The entity predicated with a state or location:

  • The door is open.
  • John is at home.

• The entity undergoing a change of state or location:

  • He opened the door.

  • The door swung open.

  • He threw the ball across the yard.

  • The ball rolled off the table.

• The entity which is possessed, acquired, or exchanged:

  • John has a new book.

  • John bought a new book.

  • John gave Mary a new book

(Larson 1984)

Affected semantic role

• The thing that is affected by an event:

  • The dog ate the meat.

  • The tree fell on the house.

• The person or thing that undergoes a process:

  • The water evaporated.
  • Mary became sad.

• The person who experiences an event:

  • John smelled the smoke.
  • Mary saw the snake.