In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, the grammatical patient, also called the ''target'' or ''undergoer'', is a semantic role representing the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out, or the
thematic relation
In certain theories of linguistics, thematic relations, also known as semantic roles or thematic roles, are the various roles that a noun phrase may play with respect to the action or state described by a governing verb, commonly the sentence's m ...
such a participant has with an action.
Sometimes, ''theme'' and ''patient'' are used to mean the same thing. When used to mean different things, ''patient'' describes a receiver that changes state ("I crushed the car") and ''theme'' describes something that does not change state ("I have the car").
[A similar distinction is made here:
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