Abstract：Both the form and meaning are indispensable parts of linguistic study. For the last fifty years, the study of meaning has been one essential aspect in the linguistic grammars, especially the linking between syntactic structure and semantics, known as semantic roles. Since Fillmore proposed the concept of Deep Case, many important linguistic theories have systematically studied the semantic relations in the underlying structure of clauses, including Case Grammar, Generative Grammar, Role and Reference Grammar, and Functional Grammar. This paper critically reviews the relevant theories on semantic relations and points out that the problem facing the study of semantic roles is still the definition and classification of semantic roles.

Keyword：semantic roles;participants;case;arguments;