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The sentence isn't that unnatural when you realize that it's full of standard linguistic terms, such as "clause", "subject", "semantic roles", "action", and "agent".

Pick a random sentence from discussion on tax laws or building an npm package, and they will sound just as ridiculous (or even pompous) to outsiders.

In layman's terms, he's saying, "I am very smart and George Orwell is a blowhard." You can decide for yourself which author you'd rather read.

the author is linguist using linguistic terms

Yes, a linguist. All the more reason why he ought to know how to construct a sentence clearly.

That doesn't follow. Linguistics is not literature.

should be phrased "when a verb denotes an action, the standard is for the subject to correspond to the agent"

I've also been pondering the two uses of the word "roles" in this sentence. This sentence is the world's best sentence.