Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität
Englisches Seminar Aufbaumodul Sprachwissenschaft
2-Fach Bachelor / 4.Semester (Germanistik/Anglistik)

Bare Passives and Relative Clauses in Be-Passive Form as Modifiers

von Annika Onken
2007

Contents

1 Introduction ... 3

2 The Grammatical Phenomenon Differences between Active and Passive Voice ... 3

3 Variations of the Passive Voice ... 5
3.1 Get-Passive ... 5
3.2 Bare-Passive ... 6
3.2.1 Bare Passives as Complements ... 7
3.2.2 Bare Passives as Modifier ... 7

4 The Development of Queries in the Penn Treebank ... 7
4.1 Be-Passive ... 7
4.2 Get-Passive ... 8
4.3 Bare Passives as Modifier ... 8
4.4 Relative Clauses in Be-Passive Form ... 8

5 Research findings ... 9
5.1 Frequency of Be-Passive and Get-Passive ... 9
5.2 Frequency of Bare Passives as Modifiers and Relative Clauses in Be-Passive Form ... 9
5.3 Frequency of Bare Passive as Modifier and Relative Clause in be-passive form at the beginning of sentences ... 9

6 Conclusion ... 11

7 References ... 12

1 Introduction

In order to learn more about the English language and how it is actually used by the native speaker community I am going to investigate the occurrence of bare passives as modifiers and of relative clauses in be-passive form which can be compared to the former in its function as modifier. With help of the queries I will find out how many of these constructions exist in The Penn Treebank and then take a closer look at the beginning of sentences. Which of these two grammatical phenomenon is more frequent at the beginnings of sentences and why? Firstly in this term paper, I will introduce the grammatical phenomenon of the passive voice with its variants ‘be-passive’, ‘get-passive’ and ‘bare passive’ by contrasting it to the active voice. Furthermore I will explain the development of the different queries needed for the research whose findings will be discussed subsequent to that.

2 The Grammatical Phenomenon - Differences between Active and Passive Voice

Active clauses contrast with passive clauses in the system of voice

(cf. Huddleston and Pullum 2005, p. 240) .“The passive voice is one of the most important types of voice alternations attested across languages. The majority of languages with voice alternations also have the passive voice” (Kazenin 2001, p. 899). The term ‘voice’ defines a category of grammar “which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in either of two ways, without change in the facts reported” (Quirk et al. 1985 p. 159). In situations where two participants are involved both can usually become the topic/theme and subject. In this case the English language offers the “active-passive voice alternative” (Downing and Locke 2006, p. 253).

i a. Itchy gave Scratchy a big hug.

i b. Scratchy was given a big hug [by Itchy].

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