[Grammar] agent patient difference in a sentence

[Zelis Ekici]

What is the difference between agent and patient??
This is a question here i cannot understand
Jack kicked the ball.
The boy kicked the ball.
The one who kicked the ball is the boy.
The ball was kicked by the boy.
It was the boy who kicked the ball.
So, which ones are patient, which ones agent.

This is a question from a test that is done for english teachers. This is not a hw. I mean by agent ' person who acts' and by patient ' thing or person who is affected'. This is a topic in linguistics. Agent, experiencer, theme, patient
Please help!!:?:

 

[emsr2d2]

None of them are correct because they don't end with a punctuation mark. Click on Edit Post, add a single, appropriate punctuation mark to the end of every sentence in your post, and remove one of the question marks and one of the exclamation marks, then click Save.

What do you mean by "agent" and "patient"?
Where is this exercise from?
When are you going to submit your homework/assignment?

 

[Tdol]

What do you mean by "agent" and "patient"?

Object and agent?

 

[Raymott]

The agent is the entity which acts. The patient is the entity acted upon. It's a different concept from subject and object. In all cases, Jack, or the boy is the agent, and the ball is the patient.
In "The one who kicked the ball is the boy", both "the one who kicked the ball" and "the boy" are the agent because it's a not a syntactical concept, but a semantic one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_%28grammar%29

 

[emsr2d2]

Interesting. That's not a term I'm familiar with. I have seen "target" used though.

 

[Zelis Ekici]

Yes, target may be synonym, but in linguistics, as far as i am taught, it is called agent or experiencer.

 

[Zelis Ekici]

Yes, absolutely.. i thought like you, .The boy, Jack are agent and the ball should be patient for me too..thnks

 

[MikeNewYork]

I have never heard patient used in that context.