 Thematic relations express the role that is assigned to the arguments of a verb in a sentence. Here are three sentences. For example, run, as in the boys run, has one argument, the boys, which functions as a subject. C has two arguments, a subject and an object, and give has three, a subject, an indirect, and a direct object. Each verb determines its thematic relations. For example, in all three verbs, the subject, which is normally a noun phrase, must be an agent. That is, someone who deliberately performs the action. In C, we additionally have a theme, an element that undergoes the action, but does not change its state. And in give, we also have a goal to which the action is directed. Linguists define up to 15 thematic relations. These are language-independent, but admittedly, often the boundaries are not clear. For example, in the hammer broke the window, some linguists treat hammer as an agent, some others as an instrument, and again some others as a row different from these. In many synthetic languages, thematic relations may be reflected in case marking. For instance, Hungarian has an instrumental case ending. And this case ending explicitly marks the instrument of a sentence. More analytic languages, like English by contrast, often mark such thematic relations with prepositions.