Questions tagged [passive]
For questions about the passive, a grammatical voice.
38 questions
1
vote
0
answers
34
views
Georgian Causative verbs
Do Georgian causative verbs in -(ev-)in-ebs have conjugation II forms, which would then have a passive-of-causative meaning like "is caused to VERB"? Neither Aronson nor Hewitt answers this ...
- 11
4
votes
3
answers
223
views
Can ergative languages have a passive construction?
I've recently started reading more about ergative languages, such as Basque.
I understand that cases in ergative languages differ from nominal-accusative languages.
For example, a sentence like "...
- 51
4
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Is there any modern Indo-European languages with synthetic passive form
Which modern IE language(s) have synthetical passive form(s)? Latin did have, but it is not a modern one.
- 43
4
votes
0
answers
65
views
Language with both passive and antipassive constructions
Are there languages with both passive and anti-passive constructions (that are well documented) but not necessarily have split alignment?
In other words, are there nominative-accusative languages with ...
0
votes
1
answer
130
views
Are there languages with free argument order that lack a passive voice? If not, why not?
Consider German, with its four cases and relatively free argument-order.
Now consider the following German sentence, courtesy of Google Translate.
Johan schenkte dem Mädchen eine Katze. (Johan gave ...
- 8,780
-1
votes
1
answer
92
views
Passive Constructions
No-one else but me has yet called those passive constructions yet, but I have because I was really not satisfied about the fact that I couldn't differentiate them from one another anyhow.
Do you think ...
3
votes
0
answers
67
views
Can clauses with transitive verbs that stand for experiences be passivized across the attested languages that have passive voice?
In English, verbs that stand for experiences (e.g. see, hear, sense, notice, realize) can occur in passive forms and clauses as we see in these examples:
"Tommy sees the baby sloth." --&...
- 8,780
2
votes
1
answer
171
views
Is the active vs passive voice distinction, a property of the verb or sentence itself?
In English, I have seen some sites explaining active vs passive voice distinction as property of the verb. And, other sites as a property of sentence as a whole. I am learning German, and in that it ...
- 433
0
votes
0
answers
72
views
Can someone share with me an article in which the author claims that the get passive is not a passive (or at least a true passive)?
Can someone share with me an article in which the author claims that the get passive is not a passive (or at least a true passive)?
I need an article in which the author says that he or she doesn't ...
user36925
1
vote
1
answer
71
views
Can someone share with me an article that studies the decline of by-phrases in the passive?
Can someone share with me an article that studies the decline of by-phrases in the passive? Preferably a corpus-based study, but this is not that relevant
user36925
2
votes
0
answers
87
views
Is there a word for a pair of verbs that mean the same thing but with subject and object swapped?
In logic, you can say:
(A and B) --> A / 'A and B' implies 'A' (as the 'B' is just discarded)
Computer programmers working from a specification to an implementation, sometimes talk about ...
- 121
0
votes
0
answers
78
views
Roles of noun phrases in passive transformations
They gave him a book. He was given a book.
In the first sentence above, "They" is the subject, "him" is the indirect object, and "a book" is the direct object.
In the ...
- 663
21
votes
1
answer
594
views
Are there any studies on some English passive verb constructions currently being replaced by new intransitive senses?
In the past couple of years I've noticed a new trend in younger generations of native English speakers, at least in American English and Australian English. But I can't find it discussed anywhere on ...
- 14.8k
5
votes
1
answer
663
views
Difference between PRO and OP
What's the difference between PRO and OP? For example, on p. 142, the book "The Syntax of Chinese" presents the following tree (which is an analysis of indirect passives in Chinese):
In this ...
user31981
4
votes
2
answers
347
views
Derivation of Passive according to Principles and Parameters (Jaeggli)
I've been trying to wrap my head around this for hours, but I am simply stuck. Could somebody please kindly explain this passage? I am struggling in particular with the part in bold. The text is from ...
- 41
0
votes
1
answer
129
views
How do we parse the sentence, "I have never seen a fish get cooked like that"?
I'm a bit stumped because I see so many things going on here. The first gloss is pretty straight forward:
I have never seen a fish get cooked like that. S|V|OC(clause)
But I'm really more interested ...
- 206
10
votes
1
answer
637
views
Origin of -s verbs in Norwegian and Swedish
(Disclaimer: I am not a linguist.)
I am learning Norwegian now, and they have some verb form when you attach -s to the end. It is often called passive voice (used in Present tense and in infinitive ...
- 201
1
vote
2
answers
101
views
Why isn't this sentence in a passive form? [closed]
I found this sentence in a grammar book for grade 10
Which CD sells the most? A traditional music CD.
I wondered why it isn't in a passive form, or just because it's used in spoken context?
- 309
5
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Why is the passive voice more prevalent in English than in other Indo-European languages?
Although the active voice is predominant in the English language the ‘ideal’ proportion of recommended passive sentences is still regarded as between 5% and 10%(source1) ( source2). Which is ...
- 394
1
vote
0
answers
71
views
Data on causatives in Russian and Turkish needed!
I'm working on a comparative syntactic project on the notion 'causative', either morphologically marked or non-marked. References like Haspelmath (1987) provide some (brief) data on the notion of ...
- 1,078
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is there a language which uses 'passive voice' more often than 'active' one?
Most languages I know of make use of 'active' more than 'passive'. It appears that the passive is derived from the 'canonical' active.
Are there any languages that use more passive than active? Or ...
- 1,078
2
votes
1
answer
163
views
criteria to distinguish resultative from stative participles?
I was recently reading an article by David Embick (2004) in which he makes a ternary distinction among passive participles: 1. stative 2. resultative 3. eventive, contra. Wasow (1977) who ...
- 1,078
1
vote
0
answers
388
views
Do English passive verbs assign case? (Government and Binding Theory)
I'm trying to think things through regarding case and passive verbs, within the framework of Government and Binding Theory.
As starting point, I'll use this statement/principle (based on what I've ...
- 133
6
votes
1
answer
375
views
Suppletion of Spanish "matar" (to kill) by "morir" (to die) in the passive
When saying someone 'was killed' in Spanish in the passive voice, muerto, the past participle of morir ("to die") is used:
«Selicho fue muerto a golpes por sus propios funcionarios»
Galeano ...
- 3,132
0
votes
1
answer
415
views
Why is there not passive imperative? [closed]
It doesn’t exist. I have the proof. Look. It’s missing.
- 21
1
vote
0
answers
170
views
Why passive light v is defective?
In Chomsky (2000,2001), the passive, along with unaccusative and other forms of participle object constructions, with the light v is considered 'defective' because as Chomsky (2001:6) says: light v of ...
- 1,078
3
votes
2
answers
214
views
In German, doesn't using 'von' for agents of passive sentences result in ambiguity?
In German, the agent of a passive construction can be re-introduced using the preposition 'von' (well, 'durch' can be used too, but that's not really relevant).
But what if there's another noun ...
user19661
4
votes
2
answers
184
views
What methods do languages use to re-introduce the subject of a passive construction?
In German and Spanish (I think), you use the word for 'from'. In Japanese though, I think they use 'ni' (which can either mean 'to' or 'at'). In English we use the preposition 'by', which is rarely ...
user19661
0
votes
0
answers
68
views
Passive voice that is not the main voice in a language
I have a sentence as an example:
Patient Trigger
Gipalit nako ang mangga.
Agent Trigger
Nipalit ko ug mangga.
I don't understand the contrast.
IMO Patient trigger is default and is used for ...
- 101
4
votes
2
answers
360
views
Passive: illusion or fact?
I've recently read a book written by J.C Milner, in French, entitled 'introduction a un traitement du passif' (1986), he was influenced by Generative theory and some of his basic assumptions regarding ...
- 1,078
4
votes
1
answer
414
views
Why is the need+concealed passive gerund construction unavailable with polyadic gerunds?
As is well known, the verbs need, require, lack and want, on the one hand, and deserve, justify, merit, warrant..., on the other, can exceptionally take -ING complement clauses with ‘concealed’ ...
user6814
5
votes
3
answers
6k
views
What is the subject of a passive sentence?
Sentences in the active voice can be converted to the passive voice by - amongst other maneuvers - moving the direct object into the position originally occupied by the grammatical subject.
Does this ...
- 507
1
vote
1
answer
196
views
Assuming that passives need verbal morphology, which languages commonly said to have a passive do not actually count?
Among others, I recently read the passive definition by Martin Haspelmath (from THE GRAMMATICIZATION OF PASSIVE MORPHOLOGY, 1990), which states (page 26/27 of the book, the second/third page of the ...
- 346
1
vote
0
answers
77
views
Passive Imperatives
The optional subject of an imperative is usually the second person pronoun. I've found something quite peculiar in Malay, where the utterance is an imperative and is passive but the subject is not the ...
- 1,582
1
vote
0
answers
148
views
Distinguishing "Eskimo"/"Inuit" languages by the passive agent morpheme
In The Origin of Agent Markers by Enrique L. Palancar an attempt has been made to list morphemes used both 1.) as a case morpheme belonging to a noun and 2.) as a morpheme on such nouns that express ...
- 346
2
votes
0
answers
153
views
What approaches exist to categorizing kinds of passive agent markers and what are their advantages?
For my thesis I would like to conduct a study on the cross-linguistic distribution of agent markers in passives.
In English, this marker is usually realized by the preposition 'by', as in (including a ...
- 346
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Why can't these English sentences passivize?
The active sentences (1a) and (2a) below can be passivized just like most English active clauses, resulting in (1b) and (2b):
1a. His candor struck me.
1b. I was struck by his candor.
2a. Her ideas ...
- 11k
5
votes
2
answers
455
views
infinitive passive in Esperanto
Beside fari (to do), grammars like this one give six other forms of the infinitive in Esperanto:
simple / progressive / perfect / prospective
(active) fari esti faranta / esti ...
- 2,017